Semper Nirvana
by krazywolve
Summary: what would happen if you threw a squad of marines into the vandread story?  how would the crew react to people with an intimate knowledge of male/female relationships?  hibikiXdita. meiaXoc. barnetteXoc. hell even ocXoc.  my first fic no ignorant flames.
1. Prologue

I own nothing.

Prologue

"The universe must really hate me." muttered Jon as he made his way to his new commanding officers office. "Major Wright certainly does." he continued to himself, bitterly remembering his previous XO grinning evilly as he signed the transfer orders. What Sergeant Jon (Reaper) Forrester USMC didn't understand was "What exactly did I do to piss him off so thoroughly?" this last thought being spoken aloud just before arriving at his destination. "Better get this over with." he admitted to himself as he knocked sharply on the door.

"Stand by." came the order through the door. Jon complied, bringing himself to parade rest against the wall just outside the door.

"We can't do this sir. It goes against everything on my moral compass!" came a voice through the door.

'Shit, if I talked like that to a superior they'd drop my ass right out of force recon, maybe the Corps too,' Jon thought with a mental shiver. The Corps was his life, and he'd be damned if he'd let anything jeopardize his career. Even so he couldn't help but listen to the conversation going on in the CO's office.

"These orders came straight from the Secretary of Defense Jim," said a much calmer yet powerful voice "and if I'm going to follow those orders I need you on board with this. I can't do it without you."

"Thank you sir but even so I can't condone this kind of activity without telling the volunteers first, you need to let them in on..." said the first voice interrupted by the phone going off.

"Colonel Price," answered the calm voice that Jon now realized belonged to his new CO, meaning the other voice must belong to his executive officer, Lieutenant Colonel Hawke if he remembered his orders right. "Yes. Yes. Very well, carry on." Col. Price finished before hanging up. "That was the front desk Jim, it seems the knock on my door a few moments ago is our new Sergeant. We will continue this later, for now, ENTER!" this last word being shouted so it was clear it was directed at the patiently waiting Sergeant.

Wasting no time, Jon opened the door and marched briskly to a point three feet in front of the CO's desk. Coming to attention and rendering a crisp salute he barked out, "Sergeant Jonathan Forrester reporting as ordered sir!"

"At ease Sergeant," the Colonel said returning the salute "Orders?"

"Yes sir." responded Jon grabbing the manilla folder from the stack of paperwork situated in his left hand and giving it to the Colonel.

"I'll take that." stated the XO pointing at the service record that remained.

"Yes sir." the Sergeant repeated handing over the stack of papers.

"Tell me how it is you were selected for this assignment Sergeant." the CO said finding the transfer papers in order.

"My command informed us of a unit accepting volunteers for an extremely high risk assignment, I was one of a very short list of willing volunteers, ultimately I was selected because of my battle history." Jon answered, selling himself as much as possible while keeping the answer short. He wanted this assignment, if for nothing else than to not have to go back to the XO from hell.

"Battle history he says," exclaimed the XO incredulously, "If I had half as many medals as you do I'd be a General by now! Colonel, he's received the navy cross and two silver stars! how in the hell are you still a Sergeant, Forrester?"

"I think I can answer that Jim," interjected the Colonel reading through the transfer performance evaluations "Look at this. All of his evals show him as the next Napolean, with 5.0's across the board, except one. One eval shows him to be a 1.0 Marine and paints him as a blight on the Corps."

Jon knew which one that would be but decided to keep his mouth closed until he was asked for his input.

"What crack smoking jackass would give such an exemplary Marine a 1.0? What the the hell was he drinking?" fumed the Lt. Colonel. Despite his better judgement, Jon liked this XO.

"Look at the name Jim." stated the CO flatly, handing the eval to the XO.

Glancing down the paper quickly, the XO's eyes widened as they read the name at the bottom, "Oh dear God."

"So Sergeant, it seems you ran afoul of Major Wrong." said the Colonel with a grin.

Jon tried and failed to stop the snort of laughter from getting out at hearing the favorite name the grunts had for their least favorite officer.

"So what was it? Did you not polish his turds just right or perhaps you forgot to wash his parking spot." continued the CO.

"I don't know sir I heard he once drummed a Marine right out of the service for not saluting him from the other side of an airfield." the XO added with a smile.

"So what did you in Sergeant? And by the way you may consider yourself ordered to speak freely." stated the CO.

"I believe I can narrow it down to three things sir," began the Sergeant "First I'm not a christian, I pray to the old norse gods. Major Wright constantly accused me of devil worship, personally I think Thor or Odin would be offended at being compared to Satan. Second I'm a serious otaku. I have a large collection of anime, manga, and sci-fi novels, and Major Wright believes the only books I needed were a bible and an army field manual."

"What on earth is an otaku?" asked the XO.

"Its japanese sir," explained Jon "Its like nerd or comic book geek."

"Very well Sergeant, what's the third reason?" asked the CO.

"Probably the most likely reason the Major dislikes me is because during all the dangerous missions he sent me on, I always disobeyed his one constant order."

"which was?" prompted the CO.

"After every briefing he'd look at me and say 'Try to die this time would you? I'm sick of dealing with your sorry ass.'" Jon finished.

"That bastard's gonna wind up dead in a ditch, shot by his own troops, and no one's gonna care." said the XO.

"His loss is our gain Jim," said the Colonel with a now permanent smile on his face "He handed us the perfect candidate on a silver platter. Very open minded with a habit of not dying when any one else probably would. Tell me Sergeant what is your take on genetic modification?"

"I think the human race needs a good kick in the genetic pants sir, from a military standpoint it would mean a lot of good young men could put some serious boot to ass for their country. On a volunteer basis, of course, being fully warned of the risks ahead of time, seeing as artificial genetic modification could leave them disfigured or unable to reproduce."

"Thank you Sergeant for proving my point." said the XO.

"And if that were the case would you still be willing to volunteer for such an assignment Sergeant?" asked the Colonel, excitement written all over his face.

"Yes sir I would." stated the Sergeant with total conviction.

"Outstanding, Marine!" cried the XO with joy "You are exactly then type of man we need on this project."

"That settles that then," said a very pleased Colonel "You will report to this office tomorrow at 0900 hours to begin your inprocessing. And bear in mind everything that happens at this command is strictly top secret."

"Understood sir."

"Dismissed."

"Yes sir!" barked a very happy Marine as he took one step back and executed a sharp about face to walk out of the office.

"What the hell kind of command did I get myself into?" Jon asked himself aloud later in his quarters "Genetic modification? Really? If they start talking about power armor and bolters I might just scream 'For the Emperor!' just for kicks. Sure they might question my sanity but I'll at least get a laugh out of it. And besides," he smiled as he thought to him self "Who's to say becoming the first Space Marine is entirely out of the question?"

He had no idea.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The first thing that registered in Hibiki's mind was pain. The last thing he remembered was running through engineering to find his partner, followed by an explosion.

'That's right I have to get my partner!' Hibiki thought dully to himself forcing his complaining body to move. adjusting his arm so that he could rub his eyes clear, his hand came into contact with something soft, warm, and unfamiliar. Opening his eyes he immediately saw the strange object inches in front of his face. Grabbing hold to inspect it further it felt like a warm water balloon, firm yet soft, almost like flesh. "What the heck is this?" he asked aloud. Looking up he quickly realized what this fleshy bag was attached to as he gazed into the face of a monster. "Ahhh!" he screamed pushing the creature away "It's a monster!" As he tried to claw his way away from the thing he was stopped by a soft and strangely muffled voice.

"Hey, wait!"

"Huh?" he gasped turning towards the voice, watching as the arms came up and removed the environmental mask revealing a mess of red hair, with bright blue eyes set in a face that part of him had to admit was cute despite belonging to a female, the very creature he had been taught to fear for as long as he could remember.

"Wow, it's a real alien!" the girl exclaimed, clearly more excited about this than he was.

"W-what? Alien?" Hibiki managed to stutter out, unsure of what to make of the red head in front of him. Giggling, the girl proceeded to make a number of hand gestures at her new found "alien". Still unsure but seeing that he was in no immediate danger, Hibiki repeated the hand gestures back to the girl.

"I did it!" the girl squealed in delight "It worked. First contact!"

'Okay thats enough crazy for me' thought Hibiki chuckling nervously while backing away slowly before making a quick break for it, throwing a quick "See ya!" over his shoulder he leapt down from the conduit they were on and started running for all he was worth.

-5 minutes later-

"Sorry but I don't feel like having my guts eaten up by women today!" Hibiki panted before making a quick turn into a side room, Realizing too late it was a dead end. "Crap!" Hearing the crazy ufo lady coming through the doorway Hibiki jumped up on a computer terminal to get a height advantage over the woman. Jumping to the right and left trying to find a way around the girl neither of them saw the monitor coming to life with the words "Executing order 36YG9. Project SM standing by for authorization."

"Mr. Alien let's just sit down and have a little chat." the girl pleaded before lunging forward to grab her alien. Seeing his opportunity Hibiki launched himself over the girls head causing her to crash into the terminal.

"Women are scary!" he declared as he made tracks out of the room.

"Mr. Alien why are you running away?" the girl asked tearing after her quarry.

The room being empty once more, there was no one to notice the monitor flashing new words across the screen, "Authorization confirmed. Do you wish to continue? (Y/N)_"

-aboard the new section of the Tarak ship "Ikazuchi"-

"Sir, data is being transfered from the old section of the ship." reported one of the faceless techs aboard the bridge.

"Treacherous women. Fire the Muramasa space missile. Destroy the old section before the pirates capture it." ordered the Captain.

"Sir there are a number of life pods being jettisoned with multiple life forms aboard. We believe it's the pirates sending our men back to us, perhaps there is a peaceful way to settle this." said the second in command.

"Fire the missile." repeated the Captain in a voice devoid of emotion.

"Yes sir."

-aboard the old section of the Tarak ship "Ikazuchi"-

"Oh my, there's a missile heading right for us!" cried Ezra

"What?" shouted BC in alarm "Parfait can we move this ship?"

"Afraid not, the engines are dead." Parfait reported sadly.

"Shit!" cursed BC "Captain what should we do?" she asked into her headset radio.

A scratchy static filled voice came over the radio "It's a shame to lose such a prize but, LETS GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

"Beginning extraction of crew" called one of the bridge bunnies

"Missile impact in 150 seconds" reported another.

"Hey wait." cried the red haired girl before she was tackled from behind by her very upset flight leader.

"Dita what are you doing? you know better than to separate from the team!"

"I'm sorry Meia." apologized Dita.

"Crew extraction complete" reported the bridge bunny "25 seconds to missile impact. We can't avoid a direct hit!"

"Hit or miss, this is our destiny." stated Magno accepting her fate.

"Jura, Dita, lets go." said Meia not wanting to stick around for the missile.

"Ahhh! my dread's stuck!" screamed Dita, slipping into panic. "Some one help me!"

"There you are partner." said Hibiki finally finding the mech that started his entire adventure and climbing into the cockpit. "Now lets go home. Uhh...Wait. How do you operate this thing?"

"Seven seconds to impact sir," stated the tech on the Ikazuchi, counting down the seconds as the rest of the bridge crew stood and saluted the old section of the ship, "5...4...3...2...1...0."

The sight from the bridge was spectacular as the the Captain yelled in triumph "That'll show those women not to mess with the mighty men of Tarak!"


	2. Chapter 1

I know I didn't say much in the prologue. But I believe that the introduction should have as few distractions as possible. This being my first fan fic I encourage reviews as long as they aren't flames, really if you don't like the story then move on to the next one as save us both the headache. That concludes my little rant. Enjoy the story.

All movies, games, books, songs, etc. are the property of their respective owners. I own nothing except for my original characters and the plot of this story.

Chapter 1

In the now crystal covered computer room just off of engineering a small piece of crystal breaks away from the rest and begins its graceful decent. As an old fashoined bomb from the days of old earth, it makes its fateful trip towards the terminal whose monitor is still requesting a yes or no answer. As if Fate her self was guiding it the small piece of crystal impacts with the "Y" key. The reaction from the keystroke causing the monitor to once again change, now reading, "Command accepted. Beginning reanimation of stasis subjects, project SM."

'I'm gonna break that damn alarm clock!' thought a very groggy Marine as he fought for consciousness amidst the noise now flooding his ears. Running trough his usual waking habits he started thinking like a computer booting up.

'Name?'

"Staff Sergeant Jonathan Forrester. Team name 'Reaper', United States Marine Corps."

'Position?'

"Squad Sergeant under Captain Williamson for alpha squad of the SM project."

The Staff Sergeants eyes flew open at this, remembering that he and his squad were supposed to be in stasis. Looking around his vision was filled with slightly hazy light filtering through the stasis gel. Aware of a slight suction feeling beneath his feet he looked down watching as the gel was being sucked away through a grate at his feet. At the same time the tube that was stuck halfway down his throat retracted itself before disappearing into the ceiling. Finding himself no longer supported by the thick gel Jon braced himself against the walls of the stasis tank as his legs quickly found their old strength. Once the gel was gone, or at least as much as possible, multiple small nozzles poked their way out of different positions in the ceiling of the tank and began spraying the Staff Sergeant with cones of hot water.

"Shit! Fuck, thats hot!" screamed the Marine in protest to the rough treatment, "Of all the times for the water heater to actually work." despite the initial protests Jon actually enjoyed scalding hot showers, once past the shock to his system he began to rub himself down to assist the shower in removing the gel from his body.

Now freshly cleaned, it was time to figure out exactly where, 'and when' he thought bitterly to himself, he was.

"I am so outta here." he said aloud hitting the switch above him that would open the tank. The door to the tank slid straight up into the ceiling revealing... a wall of crystal?

"What the fuck?" asked the now very confused non-com prodding and poking as he inspected the unanticipated barrier. 'Hmm... looks brittle.' "Okay then." he said winding up to punch his way out. The crystal gave little in the way of resistance, exploding outward as if blown out by dynamite. After some quick work the Staff Sergeant now stood out in the open and turned to look at the tank that had held him, his jaw almost hitting the ground as he saw that it was completely encased in the clear icy blue crystal. As he turned to check on the tanks that held the rest of his squad he noticed the same crystal encasing each and every one of them.

"What the hell happened?" he asked of no one in particular. As if in answer to his question the tank next to his exploded in a shower of crystal as the leader of fire team one burst out of his crystal tomb. Stepping out of the tank he tripped on a low outcropping of crystal and crashed unceremoniously to the deck.

"Well that was unexpected." said the newcomer from the floor.

"On your feet Marine, we gotta get everyone else out of their tanks." said the Staff Sergeant helping the fallen Marine to his feet.

CRASH went another of the crystal prisons as the fire team leader for fire team two gracefully stepped out of the tank that had held her.

"You know this whole stasis thing would have been better if those bendehoes at command had let us wear some fucking clothes!" fumed the hispanic girl, "It's fucking freezing in here."

"We noticed." stated the first fire team leader noticing the reaction her nipples had with the cold air.

"Fuck you D-day." she fired back.

"Enough!" barked Jon, "Save the bull shit session for later, for now lets get the rest of our people out of these tanks."

"Yes Staff Sergeant." the two responded in unison before heading off to free the rest of the squad.

Several minutes later the rest of the squad was assembled in font of the tanks that had held them as the Staff Sergeant began looking for the one person he didn't see present who should be there.

"Has anyone seen the Captain?" he asked of the assembled group.

"Negative Staff Sergeant." answered the junior man of the squad "His tank was empty."

Jon turned and looked, sure enough the young Marine was right, not only was the tank standing completely empty but it was also not covered in crystal like all the others had been. Turning back around he addressed the collected troops.

"Alright, until the Captain is found I'll assume command. By the numbers, sound off!"

"Sergeant David M. Day, team name D-day, fire team leader, first fire team!" barked the man who had so gracefully show the floor his face.

"Sergeant Maya Rodriguez, team name Tigress, fire team leader, second fire team." barked the beauty with the sailor mouth.

"Corporal Shawna Love," said a beautiful young black girl standing next to D-day in ranks, "team name Lovely, grenadier, first fire team."

"Lance Corporal James Myers, team name Dozer," said a young man with the build of one who spends way to much time at the gym, "grenadier, second fire team."

"Lance Corporals Kevin and Tyler Woods," barked out two hulking twin giants in unison, "team names Titan and Tank, automatic riflemen for first and second fire team. Oohrah!" they both exclaimed high fiving each other, for a moment Jon wondered just how these two fit into the stasis tanks in the first place, then the moment passed and he was a Staff Sergeant again.

"The next time I say by the numbers, I expect you to sound off by the fucking numbers," he growled at the two Marines who wouldn't have looked out of place on a football field, "Am I perfectly clear?"

"Y-yes Staff Sergeant." they responded standing just a little bit straighter. Normally this kind of friendly bullshitting was something that Jon wouldn't have minded, hell he would have probably joined in. But with the Captain missing, and the room they were in not being the same one they went to sleep in, his Marines needed to be reminded who was in charge and to stay frosty.

"Next!" barked Jon eager to get this over with so they could get down to figuring out where and when they were.

"Private First Class Adam Moralez," said a young man who had the definitive look of a mexican american, "team name Runner, rifleman one, first fireteam."

"Private First Class Sara Murphy," began a quiet voice from a short attractive young girl, with a round youthful face and perfectly straight hair down to her thighs. Jon had to do a double take as he noticed her hair was, from root to tip a bright pink color, he made a mental note to address that later as he let her continue. "team name Ghost, rifleman one, second fire team. squad sniper."

"Private First Class William Taylor, team name Dragon, rifleman two, first fire team." said a small african american man with wiry muscles and a beautiful chinese dragon tattoo that Jon noticed wrapped up over his shoulder and presumably continued onto his back.

"Private First Class Eric Smith, team name Nugget," the young man winced at his team name but seeing as he was the newest member, and only eighteen if Jon remembered correctly, he was the designated new guy, the 'nugget', "rifleman two, second fire team." the man seemed very unwilling to uncover his manhood, noted Jon. after noticing several shy glances to the pink haired girl standing naked next to him, Jon chuckled to himself as he realized the kid had a crush on the team sniper. 'This'll probably bite him in the ass later but I won't stop him if he ever finds the courage to make a move on the girl' he thought to himself. Oh well, love lives of his Marines aside, it was time to continue this show.

"Support staff, sound off." Jon barked to the people standing just to the side of the Marines.

"Petty Officer First Class Michael Morrison, team name Doc, squad medic." answered a tall man with a caduceus tattooed on his left pectoral.

"Petty Officer Second Class William Freed, team name Meathead, team mechanic." barked a solidly built man with tribal tattoos on his shoulders and upper arms.

"Petty Officer Third Class Tatsuko Ayanami, team name Clip, team armorer." said an average build asian man with hard looking eyes that Jon was sure would find faults with the most perfectly cleaned weapon. He was proud to have a man with such a precise attitude on his team, it was then that Jon noticed some one else was missing.

"Weren't we supposed to have a computer tech with us?" he asked looking around the room.

"Um, sir?" the young PFC Smith said pointing to a corner of the room at the end of the line of stasis tanks, where it was obvious, now that he thought about it, a tank was hidden behind the forest of crystal.

"Tank? Titan? bring me my computer tech please." he ordered the mammoth Marines.

"One techno geek coming up sir." they said before breaking up the crystal with mighty blows from their ham sized fists.

As the twin giants set about their task Jon decided to address the hair issue he'd noticed earlier.

"PFC Murphy, are you aware that you hair is bright pink." he asked evenly.

"What!" cried the girl as she grabbed her hair and brought it around front so she could see it better. Sure enough, pink hair. "If this is somebody's idea of a sick joke, I'm not laughing." she spat venomously.

"I think it looks good on you." braved the young Nugget, who quickly regretted saying anything as the girl brought her death stare down on him.

"Not the right time but good try kid." Jon said to the boy as he pulled him aside to save him from the wrath of the team sniper. It was then that he noticed something. "Nugget your hair is dark green, weren't you a blonde?"

"With all due respect Staff Sergeant, your hair is dark blue." the young PFC stated noticing the hair color of the Staff Sergeant for the first time.

"What?" yelled Jon, looking around in vain for a mirror

"In fact everyones hair color seems to have changed." he added looking around at the others who were noticing the same thing.

"Wait a minute!" exclaimed the sniper "Then it wasn't just me?"

"So it would seem Ghost." answered Jon giving up on his fruitless search for a mirror.

"Wait a sec." the girl started after realizing something, "You really think this looks good on me?" she asked the nugget, the faintest hint of red coming to her cheeks.

"Well yeah!" the boy responded enthusiastically before realizing who he was talking to, "I mean, I umm, I-I, yeah." as his courage failed him, his face made a pretty good imitation of a tomato, causing the pink haired girl to giggle at both the compliment and the boys reaction.

"Way to sweet talk the senoritas, chico." said Runner slapping the junior man on the back in an show of camaraderie, all it served to do however was to rob the boy of any further ability to speak.

"What's the status on my computer tech?" asked Jon in an attempt to spare his youngest Marine an awkward moment

After a few moments the missing tech was uncovered and carried out of his tank before being placed gently on the floor in front of the patiently waiting Staff Sergeant.

"Thank you so much for getting me out of there," gushed the mousy looking tech, "Specialist Dean Jaenisch, team name Sparky, team computer tech, reporting for duty."

"Staff Sergeant Jonathan Forrester, acting commander of this squad. glad to have you Sparky, umm... don't take this the wrong way but, you look rather small for a full grown man." said Jon having been slightly put off by just how puny the man looked to him.

"Really? because I'm actually 5'9 " said the tech with a smile

"Thats impossible, I'm 5'9 "sputtered the Staff Sergeant in disbelief.

"No Staff Sergeant you're actually now 6'6", but don't be too upset, the giants over there are both seven and a half feet themselves." the Specialist stated pointing at the twins that had rescued him from his crystal prison.

"How?" began Jon before it hit him, "Additional genetic modification."

"Exactly, I was put into stasis just before we left to bring you up to speed on your new bodies as well as be your computer expert."

"Left? What do you mean left?"

"Where would you say we are right now Staff Sergeant?"

"In some underground lab in the continental US."

"Staff Sergeant by the time I was placed into stasis, there hadn't been a USA for three hundred years." the tech stated as if it were nothing.

"WHAT!" came the chorus of every one in the room.

"I think you need to explain soldier." said Jon a very serious look upon his face.

"There's no need to worry Marines." stated the tech "the US wasn't destroyed. They gathered the other countries at the end of the third world war and created the Earth Federation."

"A global government?"

"Affirmative Staff Sergeant, and in answer to your previous question we 'left' because Earth could no longer support the vast population. So several ships were sent out across the galaxy to find hospitable planets for colonization."

The corpsman was the first to grasp what had just been said and what it meant. "Wait, you mean we're on a space ship?"

"That would be correct`Petty Officer." answered Jaenisch.

"Wait just one damn minute, the whole reason we went into stasis was because the project was suspended. We were to stay in stasis until the military was ready for the strength we possessed. Why the hell would they put us on a colonization ship?" asked the Staff Sergeant starting to sweat from trying to wrap his mind around all the impossible things he was hearing. he was pretty open minded by nature but this was getting to be a little much.

"It's actually quite simple Staff Sergeant, they were sending you along with the ship headed to the most inhospitable planet on the scanners. They honestly weren't sure if the terraforming would take. If a partial terraformation was possible they were going to drop you on the surface and see if your superior genetics would allow you to survive. Otherwise you were to serve as a security force for the colonists"

"There's just one thing bothering me about that." stated D-day.

"Really Sergeant? What's that?"

"I'm no geologist but doesn't crystal take a long time to grow? Hundreds, maybe thousands of years. If we were to be woken up anyway why were our tanks covered in crystal? Were we forgotten or something?"

"The engine system we developed for the ships drew its power from harvesting the energy of fast growing crystals, it was an enigma years ahead of its time. By the time we launched we still didn't fully understand how it worked. Being as close as we are to the engine room it's possible for the crystal to have gotten through a crack or two and entombed us as it did. As for why we weren't woken up, I'm not sure, lets check the squad terminal." said the comp tech walking off to one side of the room.

"What terminal?" asked Jon.

"It was over here behind where this layer of crystal is now."

"Step aside Sparky." said the hulking twins breaking through the crystal in mere moments, revealing a terminal that Jon hadn't known was there. The Specialist wasted no time firing up the terminal and started checking through the automatic logs, stopping when he came across something out of the ordinary.

"Staff Sergeant it seems there was a message left for you some 100 years ago, its sealed so you'll have to do a biometric scan, the scanners over there." he finished gesturing to an area still covered in crystal. A swift punch and the scanner was exposed. Placing his palm on the scan surface he unlocked the encrypted file. The monitor immediately changed to a blank screen as a video file began playing showing the missing Captain in the very room they were standing in.

"Greetings Staff Sergeant Forrester and possibly the rest of my Marines. The current date at the time of this recording is July 7, 4325. Some 2300 years after most of us went into stasis. Being the marine i know you to be, you've probably already taken your head count, found our computer tech, learned what happened in the centuries we've been asleep, and found me missing. There's a very good explanation as to why I'm not with you at the moment. The terraforming held up and colonization can now commence, there not being a need for us Space Marines, I chose to let you all stay in stasis until you were needed as per the agreement before we all went to sleep in the first place. If there's no one there to greet you, there's probably some thing wrong, I highly suggest you gear up and gather as much intel as possible. Try to find a working leadership and remember, you are Marines but more than that you are genetically enhanced Space Marines. Remember that you are a hundred times stronger, faster and harder to kill than normal. You may be able to use the fact that this is still a secret to your advantage. In the event that there is no higher leadership I trust you to use your best judgment."

The assembled Marines had said nothing all the while their commanding officer spoke, most of them unable to speak from the shock that they had been asleep for almost 2400 years.

"On the note of leadership, Staff Sergeant Forrester step forward." continued the recording. Recognizing what was about to happen every one quickly formed up into ranks the two fire teams taking the first two rows in descending rank from left to right with the support staff in the third row and the Staff Sergeant at the fore of it all.

"Know ye by all these present," the Captain began in the ceremonial fashion unique to the armed forces. "That Staff Sergeant Forrester is hereby promoted to Second Lieutenant, and given command of this squad. There may not be any pay involved but the data banks have been updated and so have your uniforms. Petty Officer Morrison, in light of the fact that your entire career as a corpsman has found you in the company of Marines I feel confident I can trust you to be the new squad sergeant in addition to your duties as a corpsman. That is all Marines. Semper Fi." The video file ended leaving a very stunned Staff Sergeant turned Lieutenant standing with his mouth open.

The first one to break the silence was the computer tech applauding the newly minted Lieutenant, breaking out of their stunned silences the rest of the troops began to follow his lead as the Lieutenant turned to face "his" Marines. Deciding that there wasn't time to waste standing around he quickly fell back on his leadership training.

"At ease Marines." as the applause stopped he continued, "Let's find our gear and suit up, I don't know about you but I'm freezing my ass off."

Following some light chuckles, the comp tech once again shed some light on the situation. "The locker rooms should be this way." he said heading to a doorway off to the side of the room. In the next room there were two sets of lockers, on one side there were a row of normal sized lockers like you'd find in any professional gym or in a high school. On the far wall however were lockers so big they could barely be called lockers, they were closer in size to small closets. Once again Sparky's knowledge proved invaluable. "The lockers on the left will have your uniforms the lockers opposite will have your combat gear.

"Cool man, maybe the Nugget'll stop staring if Ghost gets dressed." jibed Runner, ever the clown. More chuckling followed this remark, along with the embarrassed Marine stuttering his protests. Ghost said nothing, she just smiled slightly trying her best to keep the blush from rising to her cheeks.

"Alright Moralez leave the kid alone and go get dressed." said the Lieutenant, coming once again to the aid of his junior man.

"Yes Staff... I mean yes sir." said Runner, for a moment forgetting the recent promotion.

"Thats ok Runner I'm still getting used to it myself." said Jon settling in front of the the locker that read "Lt. Forrester" and quickly dressing in a set of familiar Marine Corps digital camouflage, minus the over shirt since they'd be putting the armor on too. Gods he loved how these uniforms fit, comfortable yet functional. The rest of the Marines followed his lead. Fully dressed the Marines started migrating over to the gear lockers, not sure exactly how to open the handleless doors. Jon noticed a biometric scanner beside the door, following a hunch he placed his hand on the scanner and was rewarded by a computerized female voice saying,

"Handle ID confirmed, welcome Reaper."

"Woah, cool." said Dozer "Just like the movie Doom, name and all."

Seeing the Lieutenant's success the rest of the Marines and support troops quickly followed his lead, the room filling with noise as the same female voice welcomed them all by team name.

"Hey Lieutenant," called Sgt. Rodriguez as her own locker swung open, "You never did tell us why you were called Reaper."

Jon chuckled to himself at the memory of how he picked up the name that would define him, "Before I came into this project, my XO was a royal asshole, sending me on the most dangerous missions in the hopes that I'd bite the big one. I came back almost every time without so much as a scratch." His hand went unconsciously to the scar that came down directly over his right eye. "Eventually the rumor spread that the grim reaper was too chicken shit to come collect me himself, and that if I wanted to go on to the next life I'd have to show myself the way. Add to that the fact that after twenty such missions I only ever lost one Marine, the troops were convinced I was the grim reaper himself."

"One loss in twenty missions sir?" asked the Nugget in awe of just how impressive his Lieutenant's battle history was.

"Thats what I heard," said Runner "I also heard he was missing most everything below the waist, but refused to die until the Lieutenant gave him permission. Is there any truth to that sir?"

"He had a girlfriend with a kid on the way." the Lieutenant recalled with sadness his least favorite memory. "He wouldn't stop talking about how he was going to marry her when he got back." Every one of the troops in the room shivered visibly as a chill rolled down their spines. Any wet behind the ears recruit could tell you that you never, EVER, discus romantic plans in a war zone. It went right up there with such jinxes as saying good luck in a theater or breaking a mirror on Friday the thirteenth. It was a taboo on mission to the point where some troops would physically shut the guy up before he could finish the statement. "He held on as long as he did because he wanted my solemn oath that his girlfriend and unborn child would be taken care of."

"Not that its really our business sir but, what happened to his family?" asked D-day genuinely intrigued by the Lieutenants secret past.

"Everyone in the squad gave up the whole deployment's pay and put it in a trust fund for the kid with the mother as the executor." Jon recalled with a smile. He was never as proud of his fellow Marines as when they told the girl of her lost love and his promise to care for them even from beyond the grave.

"Thats some heavy shit sir." said Corporal Love, moved by the emotion behind the story.

"Thats not the only thing thats heavy," said Jon looking at his new armor for the first time. "Who the hell came up with this stuff? It looks like some bastard child between Mjolnir armor from Halo and Space Marine armor from Warhammer 40,000."

"Funny you should mention that, actually," came the voice of Sparky on the other end of the room, "A hundred years after you guys went into stasis, it was decided that Warhammer 40,000 was the perfect training tool for officers to learn tactics and strategy. 200 years before I went in, the first suit of power armor looked very similar to the armor of the fabled Space Marines. Fortunately with advances in technology we were able to bring the bulky size of the armor down to the prototype armor you see before you."

"Prototype?" asked Jon surprised that any government would send all of the absolute best it had on one ship.

"It was designed with you in mind actually, with your genetically enhanced strength and speed the parameters had to be push well beyond what anyone thought possible so that the stress wouldn't shatter it when you pushed yourselves to your limits."

"Why so much effort? What could we possibly do to these things? They look like a mountain could fall on them and they'd be fine."

"With just your strength? not much. but once you turn the power suit on you'll find that they will boost even your incredible strength and speed ten-fold."

"No shit?" cried Jon now looking at the armor with new found respect and awe.

"No shit, but if a normal human like myself tried to use it it would tear me apart. Which is why they gave me this one." he said indicating the armor before him. A much quieter version of the massive armor the Marines had.

"So how do we get the damn armor on?" asked PFC Taylor who was struggling to remove the armor from the clamps that held it without breaking anything.

"Like this." the tech responded pushing a bright red button on the side of his gear locker. Instantly the clamps and arms holding the power armor in place sprung to life and, as the tech adopted a stance with his arms out to the side parallel to the deck and placed his feet on the painted images of boot prints on the ground, began fitting the armor to the small man. The Marines were shocked to see the arms fitting everything over the uniform, boots and all. Seeing now how it was done the remaining troops pressed the same colored button and adopted similar poses as the mechanical arms fitted the armor to them. Armor now donned Jon noticed several problems.

"Hey Sparky this armor looks cool and all but what about our upper arms and the back of the legs." noted Jon for indeed the backs of the legs and the entire upper arm were exposed. Although this did show off several arm tattoos, the Lieutenants dragon included, it did nothing to protect those parts from fire, friendly or otherwise.

"Put on the helmet and the rest of the armor seats into place. The suits were designed that way so that you wouldn't have to be constantly shut off from the world around you, plus the higher ups thought it would be a good way to show any one we come across that we mean business while at the same time showing them we aren't faceless killers."

"So its a 3 ton power tie."

"Basically."

"Shiny." the Lieutenant said picking up a helmet that looked painfully familiar, "Okay this is definitely from Warhammer 40k"

"Yeah, the Marine generals really liked the design, said it would scare the piss out of anyone on the wrong side of the battlefield." said the tech hefting a similar helmet. Placing it on top of his head slightly skewed to the left until the bottom came into contact with the neck of the armor, he then twisted it to the right until with an audible click it seated into place as the promised extra armor came sliding out of recesses in the torso section to give 100% coverage.

"Bitchay cabrone!" swore Runner when the transformation was complete, "Thats some real Iron Man shit bro."

"Where do you think they got the idea?" came the tech's voice over an external speaker, pointing to the helmet he continued to explain the functions of the suit, "With the rebreather in the helmet the suit can sustain a Marine under combat conditions for 1000 hours in any atmospheric environment or 100 hours exoatmospheric."

"This thing is spaceworthy? Awesome!" said Jon, joy evident on his face.

Removing his helmet the tech continued as the arm and leg armor slid back into the torso. "When not wearing the helmet it fits on the belt here." he said, fixing the helmet to a clip just to the left of the codpiece of the armor. "Now the fun part." he said diving into the locker and coming back out with a weapon that looked too big for him yet he hefted it with no problem. "Standard issue bolt rifle, fires a super dense kinetic round that would turn one of your M1 Abrahms tanks inside out. and..." he cotinued diving into the locker once again, pulling out what looked like a three foot chainsaw on a sword hilt. "The standard in close quarters combat,"

"A chain sword?" said Jon recognizing yet another thing stolen from Warhammer 40k, "Games Workshop must have made a fortune in royalties."

"Actually the Marine Corps bought them out in 2837."

"Figures." stated Jon looking in his locker for his own chain sword instead coming up with something that looked like an extra wide claymore. "What the fuck is this?" he asked, pulling it out and showing it to the tech expecting an explanation.

"Squeeze the trigger switch with your index and flip the power switch with your thumb."

Doing as he was instructed Jon was pleasantly surprised when the length of the blade was coated in a glowing blue energy field. "No shit. A fucking power sword."

"Right again Lieutenant. The energy field strips the electrons from any material it comes into contact with."

"Plasma tech, impressive." said Jon deactivating the power sword, returning it to its specialized sheath and attaching it to his hip. looking in the locker he found his bolt rifle and what looked like a smaller version of the rifle, pulling it out he asked of the tech, "Bolt pistol?"

"Yes sir."

"Awesome," seeing no holsters or straps Jon went on a hunch and placed the bolt pistol by his hip. Letting go he was pleased to see his hunch was correct as magnets in his belt held the pistol in place. Galvanized by this small victory he did the same with his rifle across his back with a similar result. Grabbing the extra clips of ammo and grenades, and placing them in their respective holders around his belt he scanned around the locker for any spare equipment, finding none he clipped his helmet to his belt and waited for his Marines to finish gearing up.

"Sparky," Jon asked after a moment. "Not that i'm complaining about the absolutely outstanding gear, but everything seems like it's been taken from warhammer. Is there any particular reason for that?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you sir. It's always been like this for me." answered the Specialist.

"I think it's your fault sir."said D-day from the locker right next to Jon. "Remember our first training exercise?"

"Oh shit, you're right." said Jon laughing.

"Huh?" asked the tech.

"Just after we got our genetic enhancements, we had our first combat exercise as super marines as we were called then." explained Jon. "In the middle of the exercise I just cried out 'For the Emperor!' When we were done I had to explain the reference to all my superiors. after that the Colonel started calling us Space Marines, and the name stuck. I had no idea that my actions during that exercise would eventually lead to this equipment. It's kind of surreal."

"Doesn't stop it from being awesome sir." said Tigress.

"True."

Minutes later the Marines were finished gearing up, All similarly armed except for Ghost who had a sniper variant bolt rifle with heavier rounds, and the twin giants who were carrying their heavy bolter machine guns at the hip with ammo belts coming out of the receiver assembly and hooking into the massive ammo packs on their backs, and a bayonet attached under the barrel as a melee option since the guns were two handed carry only. Jon had to admit, with all the cool gear and the fact that they were on a space ship, his inner otaku was screaming in joy and doing his happy dance. On the other hand he realized he was in command of probably the most dangerous squad of Marines in the galaxy. And, he thought with a vicious smirk, may the Gods take pity on anyone stupid enough to stand against them. "Helmets on and move out." he growled. with a quick twist of the helmets the "eyes" glowed with life and his Marines were ready and on the move.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Where the hell is anything sir?" asked D-day over the inter helmet comms.

"Fuck if I know. But there's got to be something somewhere on this ship."

The Marines had been on the move for around ten minutes and so far had only come across storage rooms and empty halls. It was, quite frankly, disconcerting. And Jon couldn't shake the feeling that the crystal was changing the ship.

"Doorway up ahead sir" reported Nugget who was on point.

"Roger, Marines form up on the hatch."

Silently the Marines got into a position to flood the room when the door was opened. When they were in position Jon came back over the radio, "Remember we're to try to make peaceful contact, but don't let your guard down. Now...GO!"

On the Lieutenants order, fifteen troops flooded through the door.

What awaited them on the other side was not what they expected.

"My goodness," said Magno Vivan entering the rec room where the prisoners were being held, "I'd heard you'd rounded up some prisoners, but they're just kids."

"Hey, hey," yelled the egg shaped robot that called it self Pyoro, "It's time to interrogate. I'll tell you everything."

"Oh my, a navi robot, how nostalgic."

At that moment everyone's attention was drawn to a door opening across the room. Curiosity turned quickly to concern as several hulking giants in armor flooded into the room taking up defensive positions, weapons trained outward.

"Speaking of nostalgia, who invited the Space Marines?" Magno commented recognizing the armor.

"Sir," came Sparky's voice over the comms, "The old woman has a 98% face match to one of the original colonists registered to this ship."

"Are you sure?"

"Second scan shows same result sir, there's no doubt she's one of the original colonists. one Magno Vivan to be exact."

"Marines stand down!" Jon barked through the comm link and the external speakers to allow the old woman and her crew to know that he had no intention of harming them in any way. Holstering his own pistol, he took a step forward arms apart, palms out in a gesture of peace. "Do you know where we might find the Captain of this ship?" he asked the aged woman.

"You're looking at her. And who might I ask are you?"

"I am Lieutenant Jonathan Forrester, Commanding Officer of the Marine security squad assigned to this colonization ship." Jon responded not at all liking the way the light blue haired girl in the corner shifted when he introduced himself. "If you get a chance, Ma'am, there are some questions I'd like to ask you about what happened to the colonists on this ship."

"Thats simple, the men on this ship took this vessel and separated from the women." answered the woman with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Come again?" said Jon not sure he had heard her correctly.

"For the last hundred years the men of Tarak and the women of Mejarre have been separated from each other, also we've been fighting each other for as long as anyone can remember."

"Then these three men here?"

"Are our prisoners of course."

"Just because they're men?"

"Naturally." said the blue haired girl, "All men are our enemy."

Removing his helmet Jon lowered a neutral stare at the girl, "Well that's just stupid."

The girl, realizing he was male, raised her laser ring, stopping when she saw a very large pistol appear in his hand aimed straight at her head. For a long moment they stood there, staring at each other over their weapons. Neither of them had an ounce of give in them, each seeing that fact in the others eyes. Despite the fact that they were pointing death at each other, both began to respect the fighting spirit of their opponent.

"Oh come now Meia, these aren't the men of Tarak." said Magno.

"Be that as it may Captain, he's still a man and all men are our enemy." responded the girl Jon now knew to be Meia. Now that he was giving his full attention to her he found her voice to be as beautiful as she was. 'No!' He had to mentally shake himself to bring his emotions back under control. 'You can't get distracted by a pretty face damn it, your Marines need you.' So lost in his thoughts was he that he almost missed Magnos next statement.

"These aren't just men, they're Marines. Elite soldiers who believe in, among other things, equal treatment for both men and women. These are people who chose to value skill and discipline, and blind themselves to such things as race or gender to find it better. Isn't that right Lieutenant?"

"That's affirmative Captain. Marines! Remove your helmets." he barked. 'Time to show this girl the truth in her captains words.' As the Marines followed the order Meia was forced to do a double take as she noticed not one but three females among the Marines numbers. In addition almost every person was different from the next save for the the two giants with the heaviest weapons Meia had ever seen. The only real similarities were their eyes which shone with a fiery determination, and the way they carried themselves as professional soldiers. Meia couldn't help but be impressed. Slowly, she lowered her laser ring.

"Very well Captain, if you're sure." she said, with just a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"You may rest at ease, Meia," said Jon. 'Time to be a diplomat' he thought to himself as he continued, "Our original purpose on this ship was to provide security for the colonists. Your Captain's faceprint matches one of those colonists." Meia glanced over at the Captain before turning back to the Marine as he continued, "additionally, our standing orders from the Captain of our squad are 'To use our best judgement in the absence of higher leadership.' To me our duty seems quite clear at this point. We will ensure the safety of Captain Magno, and by extension her crew, until such time as we can find a Marine presence to report to." Turning to his Marines he asked, "Anyone have a problem with this plan?"

"No sir!" came the collective reply.

"I'm honored Lieutenant," said Magno. "Well now that that's settled, what about these prisoners here?"

"I'm really not following this." said the tall man with long hair.

"Yeah," agreed the short one with wild hair, "Isn't this a men's ship."

"Weren't you paying attention?" asked Magno, "The men separated this section of the ship and ran off before your fathers were born."

"They overhauled the old battle ship and added residential quarters," added the small egg shaped robot.

"This is our business, so of course we'll gladly take the ship. The only problem is, what are we going to do with you three?" said Magno falling back into full pirate mode.

"We should get rid of them." said Meia still trying to understand the presence of the Marines. "Things are unstable enough."

"No need to be hasty now." Magno said with a wicked smirk. "We'll carefully decide just how we want to cook these fellows up." she finished licking her lips.

The young wild haired prisoner, looking as though he was about to die of fright right then and there, managed to mutter, "Oh man, they really are going to eat us."

"Whats this now?" asked the Marine Lieutenant who had been listening to the conversation with increasing confusion.

"The men of Tarak are told since birth that women are monsters, that eat mens innards." answered Meia with a humorous smirk.

"Huh?" asked Tigress, not understanding at all.

"Propaganda." muttered D-day, as always his face betraying no emotion even though he found the situation to be very funny.

-In another part of the ship-

Still finding no familiar constellations through her star scanner the brown haired, soft spoken girl let out a small sigh.

Broken out of her constant gushing over "aliens" her red headed companion looked at her friend with concern, "What's wrong Ezra? don't you feel well?"

"It's nothing Dita," said Ezra dismissively, "I was just thinking about everyone."

"I think about them too," agreed Dita, remembering those who didn't come on the raid, "All the people we left behind at our base."

"I'd really like to go back soon," sighed Ezra feeling more than a little homesick.

Suddenly something caught Ditas attention. "Hey look at that." she cried in excitement pointing, "Over there!"

"Where?" asked Ezra raising her scanner and aiming it in the direction Dita was pointing, quickly noticing what it was that had caught her young friend's interest. Several small specks were moving across the starry canvas before them. "What do you suppose it could be?" she asked, a chill of uneasiness settling itself in her heart.

"Isn't it obvious," said Dita with stars in her eyes, "Its a UFO!"

-In the rec room with Captain Magno-

"So the long haired boy is a doctor," said Magno taking another bite of her jello, "But what about the other one?"

"He's an attacker." Meia responded simply.

"Wait a minute," said the wild haired boy, now identified as Hibiki, in protest, "I'm not a...Ooof!" He was interrupted by an elbow from the blonde man to his left. "Why you..." Before he could finish Meia continued with her report.

"I happened to see him climbing in to an enemy powered suit." All the Marines perked up at this.

"Really?" said Magno with interest.

"W-wait a minute..." Hibiki began before being interrupted once again, this time by the intercom system.

"There's something approaching." came a distressed voice.

The silver haired vice-commander responded in her comm unit, "Is it male reinforcements?"

"Actually..." said the voice before a more enthusiastic voice came on and said, "They're UFOs!"

"They're attacking us!" said the original voice as the room shook from an impact on the ship, causing Magno to drop her snack.

"Dread teams are going out!" said Meia as she rushed out of the room.

Another impact rocked the ship as another voice came over the PA, "Hull breach in Reg central! We're attempting to seal the..." A blood curdling scream ripped through the PA as the voice cried, "Intruder alert! Security teams report to Reg central to repel boarders! What the hell are these things? Seal that door! Now!"

"Captain," said Jon stepping forward, "With your permission, we'll take care of the intruders."

"Are you sure?" asked Magno.

Failing to keep the smirk off his face he replied, "We were made for this. Just point us in the right direction."

"Stairway to your left," said the vice-commander pointing to a door off to the side, "Three levels down at the end of the hall."

"Roger." he replied before turning to his troops. "Marines, move!" Donning their helmets, the Marines quickly made their way out the door.

Without warning, another explosion caused a section of wall to fall onto one of the guards, knocking her unconscious.

"are you ok?" asked her partner, rushing to her side, "I'll get you out of here!"

"No!" cried the long haired man rising to his feet, "You mustn't move her!" The guard leveled her laser ring at the man in warning. "It's all right I'm a doctor," he continued, causing her to lower the weapon. Launching himself over the barrier between them he rushed to the fallen guard's side. "I just want to see what I can do for her. I'll need your help." he added beginning to move some of the rubble away."

"O-okay." the girl stuttered as she helped the man clear the rubble off of her friend.

The blonde haired boy in uniform had been watching the events with unmasked interest. Self preservation instincts kicking into full gear, an idea formed in his head. Turning to face the Captain he launched his plan. "It seems as though you could use some assistance."

"Hmm?" murmured Magno, giving the boy her attention as he continued.

"While it's true that we may be enemies, right now there seems to be something trying to kill both of us. As they say the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so how about we work together to pull through this crisis."

"Oh, you want to help do you?" asked Magno wondering how the young man planned to do so.

"Warning! warning!" cried the little nav-bot, "This guy's trying to pull something."

"Keep quiet Pyoro!" Magno snapped at the robot.

"You see," the young man continued, "The truth is I'm actually a helmsman. So what do you say we pool our resources and work together?"

"That's not a bad idea." admitted Magno.

Seeing that his plan had worked the blonde smiled and said, "I appreciate you taking my advice. So, shall we shake on it?" The man extended his hand only to have it knocked away by the old womans cane.

"I have no intention of getting chummy. We pirates have a saying too; The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, nothing more nothing less. But so long as you prove to be useful to us we'll let you live." She said the last with an evil looking smile on her lips.

"O-okay." the new helmsman stuttered, wondering exactly what he had just gotten himself into.

"I can't do anything more here!" cried the doctor from his spot on the floor. "I need to get her to sick bay." he said scooping the girl up into his arms.

"I'll take you." said the guard as they hurried off to care for the injured girl.

"Alright then you'll come to the bridge with me young man." Barked magno, "BC you take the attacker to his mech, he may prove useful."

"Right." the vice-commander said collecting her charge and a spare security guard and leading the young man to the cargo hold.

The battle outside was raging on. Reg being inoperable, only the three dreads in the vanguard hangar were able to make it outside to do battle with the unknown enemy. And they weren't faring too well.

"Theres just too many of them." came the blonde dread pilots face over the vid link, "We've got to strike at the main system."

The truth was they had been trying to do just that, but every time they whittled down the enemy forces enough to try, the main unit just produced more. It was a no-win situation and it was only a matter of time before the enemy got in a lucky shot and critically damaged one of the dreads.

"I agree with you Jura." replied Meia, pushing her self to the limit to defeat this unidentified assailant, "If only we could get the ship to move." Just then one of the cube like craft scored a hit on her shields jarring her craft, but otherwise causing no harm. 'Damn it' she cursed to herself as she got her head back into the fight.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"This can't be happening! This just can't be happening!" Maria panicked as she tried desperately to crawl away from the nightmare that was coming for her. The day had just gone from bad to worse. First the men fired that missile at them, she was still trying to figure out how they managed to survive that one. Next this stubborn crystal covered the entire ship, and was impossible to remove. Then there was the crash in the storage room. Celine went to investigate but as soon as she opened the door those... things just jumped out and piled on her. She'd tried to run but... Oh God the screams! Those screams would haunt her for the rest of her life, then again it looked like the rest of her life was going to last all of ten seconds. She'd managed to get the door closed but two of the monsters were already in the room. Miss Gasco was holding one of them at bay with a steel rod, but the other had turned on her and scored a cut along the back of her leg. Tears streaked their way down Maria's face as she wept silently and closed her eyes tightly against the fate that seemed to finally catch up with her. Softly crying "I don't want to die." she sat there and waited for death...

And waited...

And waited...

'Is it over? Was death really as painless as they said it would be?' she thought to herself as she took a chance and took a peek through her eyelids. The scene before her caused her eyes to widen the rest of the way in surprise. There standing between her and certain death was an armored giant holding the monster at bay with his bare hands. Well, armored but still. Before she could fully comprehend the fact that she'd been saved, another armored figure rushed forward with a glowing blue sword and plunged it to the hilt into the monster which twitched twice then stopped moving altogether. The sound of tearing metal and a mechanical shriek signaled the destruction of the other monster. Dropping the hell spawned thing the armored giant that had saved her turned to her, and she could make out a name painted on the armor's breast plate, "D-day".

"Are you alright?" came a voice from the armor in front of her.

"What?" she cried in surprise at the sudden rough voice.

"Are you injured?" the armored soldier asked, quickly looking the girl over for injuries.

"My leg." she said holding the injury that had almost gotten her killed, as a wave of pain hit with the ebb of adrenaline.

"Corpsman!" the giant called over his shoulder as yet another armored figure came over and tended to her injuries. After a few moments of antiseptic and bandages the corpsman waved some of the girls over and told them to take the girl to sickbay.

As she was being helped out, Maria remembered the knight that saved her (Some of those painkillers are pretty strong). Turning around she called the name she read on the armor, "D-day!" The Marine looked over from where he was discussing the situation with the Lieutenant and saw the brunette he'd saved waving at him. "Thank you." she called out before her friend pushed her through the door to get her to the infirmary.

"Looks like you're a hero D-day." said the Lieutenant in amusement.

"Yeah," chipped in Tigress, "A regular knight in shining armor." she said posing dramatically for effect.

"I just did what needed doing." D-day muttered, infinitely grateful that no one could see the embarrassment on his face through the helmet. "Anyway sir as I was saying the enemy apears to be mechanical." he said finishing his original report.

"Drones, perfect!" Jon said in disgust, "The least an enemy could do is come to the fight themselves."

At that moment the department head of Registry stepped up to the assembled Marines. "Thanks guys I couldn't have held that thing off another ten seconds. The name's Gascogne by the way."

"Are there any more of them?" asked Jon.

"Yeah," the woman responded pointing at the storage room door, "We managed to seal the rest of them in there."

"So throw a satchel charge in there and be done with it." offered Tigress.

"I wouldn't do that unless you want to blow the whole ship up." warned Gascogne, "Thats where we keep all the things that go boom."

"Looks like we're doing this the old fashioned way sir." said D-day unsheathing his chain sword.

"Looks like." agreed Reaper thumbing the on switch to his power sword. "We need that door open." he said to the Reg chief.

"You want to do what now?" she asked sure she had misheard.

"We can't frag the place, so that means our only option is to walk in there ourselves and kick some ass old-school style." answered the Marine.

"Are you really that eager to die?" she asked, convinced that these armored giants were crazy.

"Death is too scared to come for us. Open the door."

"Fine," she muttered tossing him her access card, "Just leave me and mine out of it." Having said this she grabbed the rest of her workers and left for the hall. Turning to address the Marines before she sealed the door, she said "The key card will let you back out. If there are any of you left."

"Her confidence in us is overwhelming." Doc said sarcastically as the door slid closed.

"She'll see." said Jon evenly before turning to the matter of clearing the storage room. "Ghost!" he barked, said Marine appearing at his side in an instant. Handing her the key card he said "When I say 'now' I want that door open."

"Yes sir!"

"Tank! Titan!"

"Sir!" the giant Marines barked in unison.

"Drop the bolters you're leading the charge. I want those things contained in that room which means you'll first have to stop them from charging through to this one. Understood?"

"Yes sir" barked the giants, huge unseen smiles on their faces, as they dropped their weapons and ammo packs to one side of the room. Coming back to a spot in front of the door the twins dropped down into positions similar to line backers on a gridiron. "Ready sir."

"Draw swords!" cried Jon as the air filled with the sounds of chain swords revving to life. "Remember that no matter what lays on the other side of those doors, you are Space Marines! We are death on the battlefield and we will destroy any foolish enough to stand against against us!"

"Oohrah!" roared his Marines.

"Now Ghost!" The girl slid the card and hit the open button on the panel then ran to get out of the way of what was about to happen. As the door began to slide upwards Jon roared "Charge!" and the two juggernauts rushed forward at full speed. The machines on the other side of the door had no time to react as the twin Marines lowered their shoulders and plowed a path for their comrades. Not giving their enemy a chance to recover, the rest of the Marines flooded the room hacking, slicing, smashing,and otherwise destroying anything moving that wasn't human.

The Marines were in their element.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"H-hey." muttered Hibiki.

"What is it?" asked BC, slightly distracted by the crystal taking over and changing the ship around them.

"I know I haven't said much but, I wanted to confess something." he said dropping his head, "I'm not actually a vanguard pilot. I'm just a parts mechanic. I guess with all the confusion I didn't have the nerve to tell anyone."

"So what is it you're doing here?" asked the vice-commander turning her full attention to the boy.

"It's actually a funny story." Hibiki chuckled as he recalled the events that led him to this point. "I kinda got suckered into promising I'd steal one of the vanguards and show it to the guys back at the factory. Don't get the wrong idea about me though, I just..."

"I guess we were wrong" interrupted BC with a slight sneer.

"Huh?"

"I'd always heard that the men of Tarak were a proud race. Who would have thought they'd be so pathetic? No matter the reason aren't you here because of pride? Or are you just trying to prove your existence?"

Hibiki's voice caught in his throat as the woman continued.

"Man or woman it doesn't matter now. The Marines are right about that. All it breaks down to now is this, we're all human beings that breathe the same air. While everyone around you fights their hardest to overcome this crisis, are you just going to cry in a corner like a child and wait for death? What flaws are you covering up right now? What do you think you can hide at a time like this? No matter how uncool or pathetic you are, if you cower at every obstacle nothing in your life will ever change. Without change how do you expect to grow and show the world you truly existed?"

"But I... I don't... I don't know what I'm supposed to do." Hibiki whimpered falling to his knees.

"Guess I was wasting my breath." muttered BC turning to the guard accompanying them, "Let's head back to the bridge."

"But what about him?" the guard asked indicating the prisoner.

"Where's he going to go? He's got nowhere left to run. And..." BC realized as she began making her way back down the hall, "Neither do we."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ghost leaned against the wall, after removing her helmet, to catch her breath. The attack had been swift and decisive but once the Marines had forced their way into the storage room the battle became truly chaotic. Being the team sniper she hadn't been issued a chain sword, mostly to save weight and maneuverablity. Instead she had a monomolecular combat knife. This made her no less effective in close quarters however. Using her superior agility she worked her way around her enemies carving them open from the back. The last one had taken her by suprise though, turning unexpectedly the beast knocked her to the ground. Rearing back to pounce on the fallen Marine the monster, had it any emotions, would have been surprised to find itself being cloven in two by a roaring chain sword. As the two halves fell apart from each other, Ghost was able to see who it was who came to her rescue.

"Thanks Smith." she said smiling, looking around to the young man who had been catching his own breath against one of the huge racks of missiles, his helmet similarly removed.

"No problem Ghost." he replied also smiling, happy that she hadn't called him Nugget. The wild idea of grabbing hold of the pink haired girl in front of him and kissing her played itself out in his head, but was rudely shattered as Dozer came around the corner.

"Hey, love birds. Form up on the Lieutenant." he barked turning back to do just that.

Broken from his daydream, the young Marine followed Ghost as they went to check in with their CO. As the two trotted up to the rest of the Marines, all of whom had removed their helmets, Meathead turned and asked, "Where were you two hiding?"

"I found them making out in the corner." said Dozer before either could respond.

"I..." "But we..." "We weren't..." "We didn't..." the two of them stuttered, faces glowing like christmas lights.

"Alright, that's enough Marines," Jon said, wondering just how much truth there was to Dozers statement, "We've still got a job to do. I want a sweep of the place for straggling enemies and possible survivors. You two." he pointed at Nugget and Ghost who were still trying to say that nothing happened. "Shut your traps and search the far aisle." he said pointing to an aisle on the far left."Tigress and Dozer, take the next one. Then Dragon and Runner, D-day and Lovely, Meathead you take Clip and Sparky down the one on the far right." he said indicating the aisles he wanted each group to search with his finger. "Tank and Titan, grab your guns and report back here with me and Doc, we're the backup." he finished. "Everybody got that?"

"Oohrah!"

"Then make it happen, Marines." he barked

"You know Doc," began Jon as his Marines fanned out to search, and the twins collected their weapons. "It's going to sound bad but I kind of hope we'll need your expertise here in the next few minutes."

"Hoping against all odds for a survivor?" asked the corpsman following the Lieutenants thought pattern.

"Exactly." Jon replied as a voice came over the comms.

"Reaper, Meathead."

"Send it Meathead."

"We've got a body over here and what looks like the enemy's assault pod." came the team mechanics voice.

"So much for survivors." muttered Jon dejectedly as he and the medic trotted over to investigate. As they came up to where the mechanic and armorer were kneeling on the ground, Jon noticed the access tube or nose, he wasn't sure which, of the assault pod the creatures came in sticking through the bulkhead. The rest of the vessel was still outside the hull so it was impossible to guess its actual size. Jon noticed Sparky spilling bile on the ground off to the side, a few seconds later he understood why. There on the ground before him was the bloody remains of what was once a pretty girl, her abdomen looking like ground chuck. "Doc, what do you think." he asked as the corpsman knelt down to examine the corpse.

"Almost no defensive wounds on the arms, the poor girl never had a chance to defend herself." the medic observed. "Massive trauma to the abdomen was the obvious cause of death. Hmm... This is odd," he noted examining the abdominal area more closely.

"What?" asked Jon keeping an eye on Meathead who was visibly shaking with rage at the brutal murder. The medic's hands froze as he discovered what it was that was off about this cadaver. Looking up at the Lieutenant he said in a hollow voice.

"The ovaries, uterus and vagina are gone."

"Destroyed?" asked Jon stunned at the news.

"No sir, gone. As in surgically removed. Those things butchered her and stole her reproductive organs."

A fresh set of heaves came from the comp tech as Jon looked at the pod that brought the monsters. "Meathead when the fight outside is over I want you to tear that pod apart. I want to know what makes these things tick."

"Yes sir." growled the mechanic, eyes blazing with hate.

"Cover the body." Jon said, voice emotionless as he stood, "Her friends shouldn't have to see her like this." The ship gave another jolt as Jon shot out an arm to steady himself. "Petty Officer Freed, hold on to that rage. this fight is far from over." he said looking at the overhead and wondering if another assault pod had struck somewhere.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What the hell is this" asked Bart having never seen any bridge like this before. The bridge was on a raised platform hanging some forty or fifty feet above the ship's biogarden with what looked like a diving board with a bulbous circular tip on the end extending out from the front of the bridge, with a strange aqua colored energy glowing from the apparatus at the end of the 'plank'.

"The bridge has been extended all the way out to there." answered Magno.

"Amazing." said Pyoro in awe, which was odd considering it was a robot.

"Well Mr. helmsman, it's time for you to show us what you can do." said the Captain shoving Bart forward roughly.

"Hey, watch it! This is dangerous." cried Bart saving himself from a tumble off the edge. Slowly, carefully making his way forward he came to a stop just in front of the swirling light. "What the hell?" he asked of no one as he looked into the light.

"What's wrong?" asked Magno losing patience with the fast-talking youth before her, "Don't you know how to use it?"

"It's not that," he said trying to think of something fast. Hitting upon an idea he continued, "It's just, this is a top secret invention of our military." Cautiously poking the energy sphere with his foot he muttered, "Is it alright if I just... Waaahhh!" He never had a chance to continue as the swirling energy chose that moment to grab hold of his foot and drag him in.

staring wide-eyed Magno managed to get out, "Thats some invention."

"I don't think he has the first clue how it works." remarked one of the bridge bunnies.

'Weightlessness? Stars?' Bart thought of his environment "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" he screamed as a boxy looking thing came up and shot a laser at him. "What the hell!" he cried getting a good look at the strange place he found himself in. He appeared to be in a giant hamster ball in the middle of space, it was also apparent that he was completely naked. As another boxy craft came up to his face he shielded himself with his arms and cringed away.

Magno was nearly thrown from her feet as the ship lurched to the side tossing the small navi-bot across the bridge screaming "Danger! Danger!"

"Wow, it moved." said Magno, genuinely surprised, taking her seat at the center of the bridge.

"Stay away!" cried Bart losing what was left of his courage. The ship, responding to the will of the helmsman, turned on its axis and made for a course away from the main enemy craft which began following, easily matching the speed of the fleeing ship.

"The main enemy system is in pursuit." reported Belvedere checking her screen.

"Meia's team is attempting to intervene, but it doesn't look like they can do anything." said Amarone, concern creeping into her voice.

"Do you think we can escape?" asked BC coming up beside the Captain.

"Your guess is as good as any at this point." said the Captain as yet another blast rocked the ship.

"Port side engine just took a hit!" reported Amarone, "The shields can't take much more of this."

"We won't be able to escape at this rate." growled Magno silently cursing the unknown enemy.

"Hey, get these things off me." Hibiki yelled, his face coming up in a screen before the bridge. "How do you expect me to fight when I'm handcuffed?"

"What's this about then?" asked Magno slightly put off by the boys attitude.

"Please leave this to me Ma'am." said BC striding forward to address the young man. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to help you fight."

"Fight? You?"

"I might be sad and pathetic, but thats not who I'm going to be anymore!" Hibiki cried, voice full of conviction.

"Are you being defiant, or is this a man's true nature?"

"It's not about either right now. It's so I can become strong and prove my existence to the universe!"

BC gave a brief chuckle of approval before taking out the control for his restraints and hitting a button.

As the cuffs fell off of his wrists Hibiki said "Thanks, you won't regret this. But umm..." Hibiki paused as he thought of the one problem he had seen that would stop him from reaching his partner.

"What now?" asked BC wondering why the boy hadn't left to get in his mech yet.

"Well, there are these monster looking things crawling all over the hangar where my partner is." he replied somewhat sheepishly.

"Understood," replied Magno already guessing who was needed for the situation, "Help is on the way."

"Thanks, I'll be waiting outside the hangar doors." Hibiki said breaking the connection.

"Lieutenant Forrester." Magno said as she opened a video link to Reg central.

"Yes Captain." came the Marines voice as his helmeted image appeared on the screen.

"There are intruders in the hangar stopping reinforcements from reaching our people outside. Here's the directions. Get rid of them." she said sending a map of the ship with the path to the hangar highlighted.

"Understood Ma'am, we'll take care of it." he said forwarding the map to his wrist computer before cutting the connection. "Marines! Move out!" he cried leading the way out of Reg, passing a very surprised Gascogne on the way.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hibiki was losing patience. After all, every moment wasted here was another moment he wasn't out fighting the things that seemed not to care whether they killed men or women. He was about to head back to the comm terminal and complain to the old woman again when he heard several very heavy footsteps coming his way. 'Did those monsters find another way out?' Hibiki thought beginning to panic before the cause of the noise came around the corner at the far end of the hall. He relaxed visibly as he recognized the armor of the 'What did that old lady call them? Maroons? Martins? Marines!' Marines making their way towards him. As they came up to where he was waiting by the door to the vanguard hangar, the Marine in the front with a glowing blue sword spoke.

"You the pilot?"

"Hey! I'm not just some pilot. I'm Hibiki Tokai the man, and don't you forget it!" Hibiki yelled crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Whether you're a real man or not remains to be seen." Jon responded, of the opinion that this kid needed a major attitude adjustment. "Either way I am Lieutenant Jonathan Forrester of the Space Marines, and these," he said gesturing to the rest of his squad, "Are my Marines." "They are the single most dangerous fighting unit in this galaxy, and don't you forget that." he said getting very close to the kids face.

"I won't." Hibiki replied not catching the underlying threat in the Marines voice. Truth be told this was exactly the way he figured a man should speak.

"Alright then. Meathead! You're in charge of the kid, make sure he gets to his mech safely."

"But sir..." Freed began to protest before being cut off by the Lieutenant.

"Will," Jon began, walking up to his friend, "We've been buddies since high school, I know how you think and how you feel right now. But if we don't get this pilot and his mech outside quick more people are going to die just like that girl in the storeroom."

"Yes sir." said Meathead hanging his head.

"Besides," continued Jon, placing his hand on his friends shoulder guard, "If there's something wrong with the mech we'll need you to fix it. You're the team mechanic after all, no one knows machines like you."

With the ghost of a smile on his face, Freed raised his head to look in his Lieutenants eyes, "When the hell did you get so smart?"

"Bro, I've always been smarter than you," Jon jibed, glad to see his old friend himself again. "You good to go?"

"Yes sir!" barked Meathead grabbing his bolt rifle and jacking a round into the chamber.

"Alright, Hibiki!" he said turning to the boy, "Stick close to Meathead here. He'll die before he lets any harm come to you."

"O-okay" stuttered Hibiki, stunned that anyone would die for him.

"Lovely, Dozer. as soon as the door is open give me one concussion grenade each followed by some frags."

"Roger." the two said in unison readying the grenades.

"Semper Fi, Marines."

"Oohrah!" came the collective reply.

"Do it!" Jon cried hitting the panel for the door. Stepping forward the two grenadiers threw the concussion grenades into the hangar and ducked behind the wall as two tremendous "whumps" came from the bay. Tossing the fragmentation grenades they readied their rifles. As the muted cracks of the frags sounded, the Marines swarmed the hangar rifles blazing, each shot finding a target.

"Ghost!" cried Tigress as another of the hell spawned machines fell to the combined fire of her and Tank, "Find a nest and snipe these fuckers! Nugget, go with her and watch her back."

"Understood." said Nugget, Ghost saying nothing as she scanned for a position that would give her altitude and cover. Finding a suitable location she cuffed Nugget on the shoulder to grab his attention. Glancing over to where the sniper was indicating he nodded once in understanding and followed the spry girl to a boarding platform in front of a mech standing in its holding bay. As ghost settled into her position a swift glance at the battlefield showed that her choice was nearly perfect, from here she commanded a wide view with absolutely clear fields of fire from the back wall to the open hangar doors. With Nugget staying below keeping the machines from getting near enough to climb up, she could allow herself to slip into a focused state where nothing existed but her, her rifle, and the next victim. Grinning as she racked the slide, Ghost began sniping machines that were using a fallen mech as cover.

"Which one's yours?" said Meathead, screaming to be heard over the cacophony of gunfire and shrieking machines.

"It has a symbol scratched into the armor between the hips." replied Hibiki frantically searching the hangar for his partner.

"Great I'm looking for a robot with a tattooed dick." Meathead muttered as he noticed a mech that fit the description. "Is that it?" he asked pointing, "The one on the ground covered in crystal?"

Following the Marines gaze, Hibiki nearly jumped for joy as he recognized the symbol that identified "his" partner. "Thats it!" he screamed.

"Reaper, Meathead." he spoke into his comm unit.

"Go for Reaper." Jon said blocking the incoming claws of a machine with his sword and blasting at the underbelly at point blank range with his pistol.

"I've got eyes on the target mech." Meathead reported picking off targets when he could from his position by the door. "Middle of the hangar, lying on the ground, covered in crystal."

Finding the described mech Jon barked out swift orders to his troops. Moving swiftly the squad redeployed into staggered skirmish lines and started slowly but steadily advancing to provide the mech pilot with a path to his machine. As soon as he saw a clear avenue, Meathead turned to the boy and said "You stay on my six, you move when I move, you stop when I stop, follow my orders and I promise your survival. Do you get me?"

"Yes." said the boy, determination clear on his face.

"Good, then move!" Meathead yelled breaking from the cover of the doorway and advanced quickly, but not so quickly that the boy couldn't keep up, towards the mech.

Arriving at their destination Hibiki got his first good look at the changes the crystal had made to his mech. "Hey partner sorry to keep you waiting. You've changed a little bit huh?" he remarked running his hand along the armor of his mech. "Alright then, I'll just have to change too." he said climbing into the cockpit.

"Hey kid," called the Marine that had guarded him, "You sure you can pilot that thing?"

"Not like I have much choice do I?" Hibiki responded, settling himself in and adjusting himself to the controls. "I can't blow it this time. I may not know how to operate this thing, but I'll make it move with my mind!" Having finished saying this Hibiki blinked in surprise as a heads up display sprung into existence in front of his face.

Nearly dropping his rifle in surprise at the kids words, Meathead turned to pull the kid out of the mech before he hurt himself and stopped cold when three things happened; The eyes of the mech blazed to life, the cockpit closed, and the entire robot started to move. Getting clear as the mech made its way to the launch catapult, he called to the Lieutenant, "Sir the mech is up and mobile. Clear the runway!"

"Marines get clear of the runway of the launch catapult, try to funnel as many enemies as possible into it though. You know what they say, if you're going to hit the deer..."

"Speed up!" finished the twin giants in sync, firing their machine guns on full rock and roll towards the enemies along the sides of the hangar.

"Captain the mech is in position and ready to launch." Jon reported to the bridge.

"Understood, good work Lieutenant." Magno responded, "I'll let the dread pilots know." Opening a link to the dreads fighting outside she said "Meia, reinforcements are en route although we have no idea how helpful they'll be."

"Reinforcements?" asked Meia, "But I thought Reg was down."

"They won't be coming from Reg." switching back to the hangar Magno barked "Launch!"

"Go, go, go!" Jon yelled through his link to the mech.

"Time to do something with my life!" Hibiki yelled shoving the controls forward, sending the Catapult forward at incredible speed, plowing through easily half of the remaining machines trying to get at the Marines.

"Awesome!" cried Dragon dropping another machine with a few well placed rounds to the 'head', "Can we do that again?"

"Just keep your mind on your enemies, Dragon." said D-day.

"But Sergeant," Runner said as the last of the machines dropped, having been felled by a well placed sniper round, "There are no more enemies."

"Well then," said Jon sheathing his sword and holstering his pistol, "I suggest you fan out and find the pod they came in Private."

"You mean that over there?" Runner said pointing at a large vessel lying to the side of the hangar. It looked like nothing so much as a giant shark with a hollow tube coming straight out of the front, upon closer inspection the Marines found that the access tube was ringed by high powered penetration lasers. "And with all due respect sir, I'm a PFC."

"Are you sure Runner?" Jon said with an edge to his voice.

"Shutting up sir."

"Good man"

"Umm sir." said Sparky nervously.

"Yeah?" said Jon, looking around and wondering how they were going to clean up the mess.

"From the angle, I'd say that pod came in through the hangar doors," he said pointing to the open doors.

"Yeah so?"

"So what's stopping anything else from coming in the same way?"

As he looked at the assault pod and the open hangar doors, his mind grasped what the tech was getting at. Before he could say another word, the techs fears were realized as one of the cube like enemies that had been harassing the dreads came hurtling through the doorway, and crashed into the wall at the back of the hangar. "Sparky, next time I'd like warning about these kinds of possibilities a little sooner." he said as the cube type got to its stumpy feet and looked at the Marines, the red eye at the center of its front beginning to glow. "Marines, scatter!" he barked none to soon. Just as the Marines broke for cover the machine let loose with a laser blast that scorched the ground, previously occupied by Tank, black.

After several moments and a few close calls Jon ducked behind the assault pod with Clip, Tank, Titan, and Meathead. "Alright, this is not going well." complained Titan as another energy blast glanced off the pod, inches from his head. Their shots, instead of punching holes in the thing like they had its smaller cousins, were bouncing off of some kind of deflection shield.

"Dammit," cursed Jon, "There has to be a way to penetrate the deflector shield that thing has."

Eyes widening, Meathead turned to him and said, "There is sir. We're sitting by it."

"What?" asked Jon wondering if his friend had lost it.

Pointing to the assault pod they were using for cover Meathead continued, "The lasers on this thing were designed to penetrate ship armor. Why wouldn't it cut through that thing?"

Seeing the brilliance in this plan Jon pointed out the one problem he could see with it, "We should be able to move the pod but we need a distraction." "Marines we need a diversion!" Jon yelled as Meathead slipped inside the assault pod through the tubelike nose to start hacking the laser grid.

"I got an idea!" exclaimed Nugget as he jumped up to one of the vanguards.

"Don't you be trying nothing stupid cholo." called Runner.

Opening the cockpit and settling inside the young Marine replied, "You know me."

"Yeah, thats what I'm talking about." Runner cried as the cockpit closed.

It was a tight fit but Nugget could still maneuver in the mech, looking around quickly he got the feel of the layout. Hitting a few of the switches he was rewarded with the sound of the mech firing up. "Oohrah, here we go." he said to himself moving the mech forward out of the housing bay.

Looking around the assault pod Jon stared in awe as he watched one of the mechs begin to move out of its bay. His helmets IFF tracker identified it as his junior man. "Nugget just what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"You asked for a distraction sir." Nugget replied lumbering towards the cube type which was lining up a shot on Ghost. "This is the biggest one I could find." he finished as he grabbed a hold of one of the enemy's arms and turned it in time to make its energy beam hit well wide of its mark, namely the teams sniper.

"That's the second time you've saved my ass today Smith." Ghost said with a clear smile on her face, "Are you trying to be my personal guardian angel?"

"It ain't trying if I'm succeeding." Nugget replied getting into a giant wrestling match with the machine.

"I've hacked it sir!" yelled Meathead from inside the pod, "Just point me at the enemy and I'll do the rest."

"Marines, on me!" Jon cried as his troops made their way to his position. "We need to lift this pod and aim it at the enemy, Ghost get on top and guide us."

"Yes sir." they all cried out as Ghost crawled her way to the top of the pod.

Tank and Titan took the front as the Marines started following Ghosts directions to line up the shot. "Hold there!" she barked when she saw an opportunity. "Smith get clear!" Hearing her, Nugget planted his mechs foot in the chest of the enemy and pushed off. Once the mech was clear the machine stumbled back into the perfect position. "Fire!" she screamed. Meathead heard her and connected the wires he'd stripped, sending the signal to the lasers that it was time to work. The blast caused the shields aroud the machine to flare and die out, but left it otherwise unharmed.

"Sir the enemy is still standing." reported Nugget getting his mech back into position to attack.

"Yes. Thank you Nugget I can see that." called Jon as the Marines dropped the pod and once again broke for cover. As he ducked back around the pod Jon noticed something. "Smith there's a fucking sword on the back of that thing, use it!" he yelled as he started firing at the now unprotected machine, punching holes in its hull but not doing enough damage to put it down for good.

"Yes sir!" Nugget yelled, quickly finding the weapons controls. The mechs hands reached behind its back and, with full economy of motion, brought the giant sword out of its holster and plunged it into the enemy up to the cross guard. Grabbing hold of the eye, Smith forced the sword downward and out the bottom, cleaving the enemy nearly in two. Realizing that his enemy was a machine Nugget decided that, if it exploded upon death, it would not be good to have this happen in an enclosed hangar. Dropping the sword he grabbed it with both of the mechs hands and hurled it out the open hangar door. Once outside in death pressure the inner systems couldn't handle the sudden vacuum, causing the machine to implode upon itself. Striding over to the door controls Jon hit the button to close the hangar, preventing anymore unwelcome guests from crashing the party. As he made his way back to his assembled Marines, Nugget was climbing out of the cockpit of the vanguard surrounded by screaming marines.

"Way to go Nugget!"

"Semper fucking Fi Marine!"

"Oohrah Smith!"

"PFC Smith!" barked Jon stepping in front of the Marine.

"Sir!" he said coming to attention.

"Having fought your way through not one, but three separate life or death situations. Utilizing exemplary decision making skills, and saving the lives of every Marine here, I hereby designate to you a new team name. You are no longer Nugget, you are now Knight. You are now a fully recognized member of this team and a true example of a Space Marine. OOHRAH KNIGHT!"

"OOHRAH!" cried every Marine, Ghost loudest of all.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The enemy surrounded Hibiki almost the instant he was out of the hangar, blasting him from every angle as the arms of his mech flailed around uselessly. "Stay away from me. Leave me alone!" he screamed in vain as he fought for control.

"What's that thing?" asked Jura of the newcomer to the battle space.

"Meia do you see that?" cried Dita, "It must be the good alien!"

"Thats our reinforcements?" said Meia curious as to how this mech could be of any assistance.

"Okay you guys are good, I'll give you that." Hibiki admitted gaining control of his mech, "But I'm getting the hang of this thing now. Try this on for size. Super Lightning Fist!" he cried. His mech struck an epic pose, to absolutely no effect, resulting in three more blasts to his flanks. "Damn it, this things got no ammo," he said checking the weapons list. Selecting the sword option he said, "Alright then, try this!" This time the attacks had much greater effect, allowing Hibiki to cut a swath towards the main system.

"Enemy main system has stopped advancing" reported Amarone.

"Its heading toward the vanguard." added Belvedere.

"It doesn't look like he'll live too long." commented Magno.

"True," said BC, "But if he does live through this he's going to stand the world we know on its head."

"Bring it on!" Hibiki cried pressing his advance.

"He's amazing!" said Dita falling in behind the vanguard.

"Dita fall back!" ordered Meia.

"There's no reason to worry. Mr. Alien's going to get us out of this, I'm sure of it!" Dita said getting closer to the vanguard. She wanted to be right there to witness his victory.

"Dita! Dita!" Meia cried trying to get through to the stubborn girl.

"I'm going to do it. Nothing's going to get in my way now!" Hibiki roared in defiance of the enemy before him. As he neared the main system however the cube type enemies began to gang up on him grabbing hold and preventing his advance. "Just a little more," he grunted straining to get closer, "Just a little more power, enough to take one more step." At that moment the main system let loose glowing streamers of solidified energy grabbing his mech and holding it in place.

"No! Mr. Alien!" cried Dita pushing her dread faster to reach the caught vanguard.

"I can't lose!" Hibiki screamed as a mighty explosion consumed his vanguard.

"That little fool." said Jura turning her head. Meia could say nothing, she just stared at the expanding cloud of what once was a man.

On the bridge the mood was somber as the grave. Magno was the first to break the silence, "I guess a miracle really was to much to ask for."

"All crew abandon shi..." BC began before being interrupted by Pyoro letting out a very loud "Beep!" All eyes turned to the main screen as their brains struggled to comprehend what their eyes were telling them. There in the still burning ball of fire, a hand was reaching out and crushing the solid energy ribbons. Emerging from the flames, as a phoenix reborn of its own ashes, was a great machine. Built like a vanguard yet looking as though it was made from Dita's dread.

"What the..." gasped Meia.

"What is this? Another of the mens secret weapons?" asked Magno.

"That's impossible." said BC, "Is this a real miracle?"

Launching forward, the new machine would not be denied as more of the cube types tried and failed to stop it the way they had succeeded with Hibiki's vanguard before. Shaking off the insignificant pests the mech made its way to the closing mouth of the main system. Catching hold of the sides, the mech forced the mouth open once more as the nacelles on its back came up and positioned themselves on its shoulders like cannons. Suddenly glowing with energy the cannons let loose an incredible energy beam that ripped right through the enemy, unable to withstand that kind of damage the system exploded with tremendous force. With the death of the main system all of the subordinate units ceased functioning, floating dead in space like so much flotsam and jetsam. As the fireball subsided all that remained were pieces of scrap and the mighty blue mech.

'I made it.' Hibiki thought as he slowly regained consciousness, 'I finally made it.' Opening his eyes, his breath caught in his throat as he counted ten fingers on his left hand, but half of them seemed paler and more delicate than his usually were. Looking quickly around he realized that he had not, in fact, grown five extra fingers. His hand was merely grasping the control sphere over top of someone else's. Said person being seated directly in front of him on his lap, his legs situated around the outside of their creamy slender ones. And as the mess of red hair fell back and nuzzled into his chest Hibiki could see the face of the crazy UFO girl that had chased him in the engineering room. "What the hell is going on here?" he asked starting to panic at being in such close proximity to a girl.

Giving out a small satisfied sigh the girl said softly, almost dreamily, "Mr. Alien, you were amazing."

Frantically wondering what had happened while he was unconscious Hibiki thought aloud, "Is this my proof of existence?"


	3. Chapter 2

I'd like to start by apologizing for the delay. My muse is an evasive creature and writers block doesn't begin to describe the situation when it's gone. I can't promise any consistency with my chapters so all I can say is, I do have ideas that run right up to and past the end of the anime series and I will post chapters when I can.

I'd like to thank Moonlit Memories for pointing out a mistake I've over looked. Those that have read my profile will know that I am a proudly serving member of the United States armed forces. As such the terms and acronyms of the military are as much a part of my speech as my accent. If some of the phrases I use confuse you I do apologize, but several of the characters in my story are from the same military I'm from and that's just how we speak. Thanks for pointing that out Moonlit, Semper Fi.

Oh and TealDragonUnleashed; If you want to give Meathead a nutcracker surprise you can do it your self. It's your cousin he's based off of.

Enough talking. Enjoy

As always, I own nothing.

Chapter 2

"So," began Magno settling into her chair in the conference room, "Let's get this over with."

"Yes captain," said BC as she launched into her report. "Our ship has been completely swallowed up. The bridge, residential quarters, and engine room have been entirely engulfed by the crystal. Fortunately, mostly due to the actions of the Marines, there was minimal damage to the dread platform and the Reg system. We're in the middle of cleaning up and installing the new database. The spread of Paksis Pragma seems to have reached its peak. The bridge has stopped sliding and is currently situated over the ships biogarden. The changes to the ship seem to have come to an end. Meia, your report." she finished, handing it over to the dread pilot.

"Thank you BC. The three dreads that were swallowed and transformed by the Paksis will no longer fit in any of our regular platforms. We've modified the vanguard hangar on the mens side and are storing them there. While making those modifications we discovered that the ship hasn't been used in quite some time. The circuits and cables are too old, most of them too decayed to use."

"The main problem as we see it is our current location. It's difficult to believe but we are quite some distance from Mejare. We are, in fact in a completely different nebula. By my estimate it will take approximately 270 days of steady travel to return to Mejare."

"Well thats just great," complained Magno, fanning her self to try and alleviate some of the heat that seemed to be up all over the ship. "What did we do to desreve being swept across the galaxy. And," she added turning to where Meia and Jon were sitting, "What about our enemy? Do we have any information about them?"

"Only what we were able to observe in combat I'm afraid." reported Jon, "The ground troops and basic space combat units seem to be entirely mechanical drones, there were no living beings piloting the assault pods either. Beyond the basic combat units I cannot say. The entire system seems to run like some sort of hive mind control system."

"Hive mind?" asked Magno.

"Yes ma'am. One control system, in this case the system destroyed by the blue mech, controls all of the subsystems. Going the other way everything seen or heard by the subsystems gets filtered up to the control system, potentially allowing all the rest of the units to learn from and act on that knowledge. The best proof we have of this is that once the main system was destroyed the cube type fighters ceased functioning." Jon finished.

"I concur with this theory," added Meia, the words tasting like vinegar coming out of her mouth. But, she had to admit, the Marine certainly knew combat, and had learned more from three brief encounters with the enemy than she had in one prolonged battle. "The battle only got progressively harder the longer we fought." she continued, "My team is understaffed so I asked for volunteers to investigate the enemy's main system to gather more intel."

"Volunteers? Who?" asked Magno pausing in her constant fanning.

"Dita and Miss Gasco." Meia said sheepishly.

"Weren't there any Marine volunteers?" Magno asked of the Lieutenant.

"Every one of them ma'am." said Jon with a slight edge to his voice at the very idea that a Marine would shy away from volunteering for any assignment, no matter how dangerous or mundane. "The fact is they've been assigned all over the ship. My computer specialist alone is being constantly bounced between restoring the old and damaged circuits and wires, helping to integrate the new system to the Paksis, and integrating our marine database to everything else. My armorer is heading up the inventory of the Reg system. And my mechanic is on loan for an indefinite amount of time to the engineering department. And all the rest of my Marines are doing everything from inventory in the pantry to doing heavy lifting in the hotter sections of the ship. The self-contained cooling systems in our suits coupled with our increased strength is making my Marines invaluable everywhere in this situation. We are keeping our helmets on around the rest of the crew to keep the fact that most of us are male a secret, but we won't be able to keep this a secret forever. And personally," he continued as the video feed showed the Tarakan men getting hosed down in the brig, "We seem to be getting preferential treatment."

"You said it yourself," shot Meia, trying to keep her voice disdainful when speaking to the Marine. He was after all still a man, no matter what his beliefs towards women. Life on Mejare made her extremely distrustful of men. Yet at the same time when it came to this particular male, for reasons she couldn't explain she wanted him close. She chalked it up to the fact that he was a proven warrior, and someone you wanted at your back in a fight. "Your abilities make you useful. Were it not critical to use every available resource, you and the rest of the men under you would be right there with them."

"Yes what about these men of Tarak?" Magno interjected stopping a possible argument from happening. She wasn't so much worried about the Marine, he was a lieutenant after all and as such should have an incredible amount of self discipline, but Meia still had some real prejudices against men. Even though, Magno had noticed with interest, Meia was less violent towards the Lieutenant than any of the other men on the ship. Chuckling at the thought that Meia could ever actually care for the young Lieutenant, she decided to keep the conversation away from the Marines for the moment. "These were the only ones left after we sent the rest off in the escape pods right?"

"Correct, and we'll have to depend on them until we fully understand the systems on this ship." said BC.

"Yes, I've never seen the like before." Magno said as she recalled the helm spitting out the blonde helmsman. "It was as if the ship had a mind of its own. A very unnerving thought."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"It was really unnerving." Bart told the other men in the cell. "All my allies were falling around me, but survival kicked in and I persevered..." as Bart launched into a self gratifying speech about how he "outsmarted" the women, Hibiki tuned him out and became lost in his own thoughts.

'This sucks. I thought I'd changed my fate, but look at where I am now. Even so what the hell...' "Happened back there?"

"Huh?"said Hibiki, confused until he realized it was Bart that had spoken.

"Who made that vanguard and how was it able to combine with the woman's dread?"

"How the hell should I know?" said Hibiki immediately going on the defensive. "I still haven't forgiven you for that blow to the gut by the way."

"Easy there brother, no need to be upset. I did it for your own good you know." said Bart raising his hands up defensively.

"You don't know when to shut up, do you?" snarled Hibiki.

"He's scared." muttered Duelo.

"Huh?" uttered Hibiki in surprise at the sudden statement from the doctor.

"He deals with his fear by talking. Please forgive him." Duelo continued.

"Wow, you're really clever," said Bart sincerely, "You really are one of the elite students aren't you? So how about it, huh? With your brain and my silver tongue we could easily out smart those women."

"Would you mind repeating that please?" asked BC, who was standing just outside the holding cell with her hands on her hips.

"Oh!" Bart cried as he turned and saw the vice captain standing there listening to his conversation, flanked by two security guards. "I was just joking around, you know." he said chuckling nervously.

"I'd like to hear these jokes of yours. Follow me to the bridge won't you?" said BC, signaling one of the guards to deactivate the energy beams that formed the door.

"S-sure, as long as its a social call." Bart stuttered as the guards brought him out of the cell, the energy beams springing back to life as they left for the bridge.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"In my opinion Captain, this place looks more like a giant factory than a space ship." reported Gascogne as Magno watched the feed from the eva suit's helmet camera, showing what was left of the enemy's main system.

"So are there any clues as to their intention?" asked Magno desperately fanning her self as the temperature continued to rise throughout the ship.

"We're searching the database for information but its pretty extensive." said Gascogne as another eva suit came up in front of her field of vision, its mask going to clear mode to reveal the smiling, excited face of Dita.

"Hey Miss Gasco is it okay if I take a look around?" the girl asked with enthusiasm.

"Absolutely not!" Gascogne said pushing the girl away into an uncontrolled tumble, "We've got a job to do."

"Wahhh! I can't stop!" cried Dita as she fought to stabilize herself.

Chuckling in amusement at the girl's antics, Magno was interrupted by a buzz from her chairs comm link. Pressing a button she answered the call, "Yes BC?"

"I've brought our navigator Captain." came BC's voice over the link.

"I'll be right there" said Magno as she turned back to Gascogne, "I'll leave the investigation to you Gascogne."

"Gotcha." she replied as the connection was terminated.

Pressing another button on her chair, Magno's seat slid backwards out of the conference room, through the back wall which slid open to allow her chair through. On the other side of the wall, the chair came to a stop on the landing of a ramp overlooking the bridge. Turning 180 degrees the chair then proceeded down the ramp settling into the Captains position on the bridge.

"Hello there." said Bart as the Captain's chair came to a stop, "Was there something you wanted from me?"

"Yes." said the Captain pointing at the helm platform on the end of the 'diving board', "That thing. We haven't been able to operate it, so maybe you'd be so kind as to tell us how you did it."

"I guess i'd better. Given the circumstances," he said indicating his restraints, "I have no choice". As BC hit the button on her remote device the cuffs fell off of his wrists. Falling into his air of chauvinism, he continued making his way down the access ramp to the helm, "Now try and pay attention closely. This is a male ship which means that only men can operate it, so I'd say you were very lucky to have me aboard." He finally came to the end of the diving board and was standing next to the swirling energy sphere. "In fact you could say that I'm an indispensable..." The bridge crew never heard how he was indispensable, as the energy sphere chose that moment to suck the helmsman in again, with him screaming in protest.

"I really don't understand this system at all." remarked Magno.

As the view of the navigation chamber went from static to clear, Bart readjusted himself to being in the sphere. Before he was able to do anything however, the ship's drive systems suddenly kicked in and took off despite the protests of the navigator. Everyone on the bridge scrambled to hold onto something as the g-forces kicked in. "Whats going on?" demanded Magno, not at all pleased at the sudden jolt.

"The system just booted up Captain." reported Amarone stabilizing the halo-like data screen that hovered around her position.

"Projecting current destination." called Belvedere finally getting her own data screen under control.

"Just what the hell did you do in there." yelled Magno bringing up a vid link that showed the helmsman's face.

"What? Nothing, I swear!" said the blonde man desperately trying to bring the ship under control, "Just a minute."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meia and Jon were in the refitted vanguard hangar, hooking the dreads into the custom made restraint system. They were the only ones there so Jon had his helmet off as he hooked up the fuel umbilicals to Meias dread as she sat in the cockpit shutting down all of the major systems. All of a sudden a mighty shift in inertia caused Jon to lose his balance. After a moment of flailing his arms trying to regain his balance, gravity finally won, pulling him down off of the ledge he was on. Seeing the Marine disappear over the edge, Meia experienced a brief moment of panic as she jumped up from her seat to lean out and see if the man was still alive. Somehow Jon had managed to grab hold of the ledge on the way down and now dangled, one handed, from the ledge he previously stood upon. Meia let out a very noticeable sigh of relief as she saw that the Marine was okay.

"Wow, was that concern on your face just now?" remarked Jon climbing back up to stand on the ledge, "And a sigh of relief?"

"Relief that I don't have to explain a dead Marine in the hangar to the Captain." Meia said settling back down into her seat but still keeping her eyes on the man, an unfamiliar feeling creeping into her chest. 'Just what is it about this man? I can't seem to keep him out of my mind?' she wondered as the Marine in question shuffled his way up to the cockpit.

"You know something Meia?" he said leaning in close to her face, causing her breath to catch in her throat, "You need to learn how to lie better."

"What makes you think I'm lying?" she asked as her pulse quickened.

"It's your eyes." the Lieutenant replied. At this range he could identify the aroma of her shampoo, and _gods_ did she smell wonderful, 'Stop that, dammit' he chided himself. "You've been watching me like a hawk since you found out I was a man. When are you going to trust that I'm not the enemy?"

"I haven't been... I wasn't..." she stuttered. Damn him! Why did he make her feel this way? "What was with the sudden jolt anyway?" she said changing the subject while trying to get ahold of the bridge.

Jon sighed as he allowed her to duck the question. For the life of him, he just couldn't figure this girl out. She was the queen of mixed signals. Concern for his safety but scorn for his existence? Leaning in to listen as Meia got ahold of the bridge, he decided she was going to be the ultimate onion case. And pulling these layers back one at a time was going to be either slow or painful, probably both.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The download complete, the hacking tool spit out the data disc. Grabbing hold of it and placing it in a pocket, Gascogne radioed the ship, "I've finished copying the data." Static was all that answered her as she waited for a response. "Are you there?" Turning around she saw empty space where the ship was supposed to be. "Dita?" she asked managing to keep from panicking, "Where's the ship?"

"Huh?" the girl asked, turning around from whatever it was she had been looking at. Not seeing the ship either she gulped loudly, "Uh-oh!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Miss Gasco, Dita! If you can hear me please respond!" cried Ezra trying everything she could to raise the two on the radio.

"Release the markers!" barked BC.

"Roger." replied Amarone hitting the button that released a nav marker to give them a return path once they got control of the ships drive again.

"Miss Gasco..." Ezra gasped as she collapsed onto her control screen.

"Ezra!" said BC rushing over to aid the girl, "Whats wrong?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hibiki's dreams were plagued with visions of his grandpa, one memory coming through clear. His gramps had sent him to the city to make friends so that he could learn about himself. Hibiki had insisted that he already knew enough about himself but his gramps had told him that friends were like mirrors, and you could see who you were in the friends around you.

"Gramps..." Hibiki muttered as he woke up. Eyes widening as he saw the doctor there touching their foreheads together, he freaked out a little pushing the doctor away as he yelled, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Checking your temperature, you were muttering in your sleep." the doctor said, apparently not insulted by the boys actions.

"I-I'm fine doc, really." Hibiki said calming down a bit.

"Who's gramps?" Duelo asked.

"He's just gramps. He's the one who raised me."

"Strange, to think that a member of the first generation would be in contact with a third class citizen like yourself."

"You're Duelo right?" asked the vice commander appearing before the cell again, "If you're not too busy, I'd like you to come with me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What's the situation here girls?" asked Parfait, the head of engineering, as she removed the top half of her coveralls and tied the sleeves around her waist in an attempt to combat the heat.

"Crystalline responses are down 45%." said one of the techs.

"Temperature is up an average of 6 degrees all over the ship." said another.

"I have no idea where to start with this thing." said one tech on the verge of giving up.

"Just do what you can." said Parfait turning to the tech working with the egg shaped robot that called itself Pyoro. "How are you doing? Something interesting?"

"I don't know." responded the tech as the robot which had wires coming out of everywhere gave what sounded like a moan and said, "Sick."

"Sick?" gasped Parfait.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the door to the sick bay slid open, Duelo noticed a brown haired girl lying in a bed on the far side of the room.

"She's running a slight fever and it won't go down," said BC referring to the girl in the bed, "Do you think you could take a look at her?"

"My understanding was that women's medical technology was fairly advanced." said Duelo glancing sideways at the vice commander.

"Probing for information even in basic conversation," said BC shaking her head, "You really are one of the men's elites. Very well, approximately 90% of the ships systems are offline, unfortunately that includes the automatic medical systems. Is that enough information to satisfy you?"

Smiling Duelo answered, "I'll examine the patient."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Huh?" asked Dita looking around for the ship with her star scanner.

"What's wrong?" asked Gascogne.

"The only things I can see are markers." Dita said.

"Something must have happened," remarked Gascogne uneasiness settling in her chest, "We got what we came for, lets get the hell out of here." As the two made their way out of the innards of the enemy vessel, Gascogne noticed too late something happening behind her as she suddenly found herself trapped by the same solid energy ribbons that had trapped the vanguard. Unable to escape, Gascogne blamed herself for getting caught so easily. Dita came forward and attempted to cut her out with a laser, to no effect.

"It's no use." Dita cried putting the laser away, "Hold on, I'll get the tools from the dread."

"Forget it." said Gascogne, "Have you forgotten our job? We came here on a mission and someone needs to return with the data."

"But Miss Gasco. I can't just leave you here."

"Who the hell said you were leaving me to rot? This ain't some cheesy daytime drama, I'm counting on you to come back with help!"

"I understand." said Dita sadly, turning to make her way to her dread. "I'll be back soon, don't go anywhere!"

As the girl left, Gascogne laughed, "And just where am I going to go?" That laughter died quickly as she noticed some of the pods in the husk she was trapped in, glowing and coming to life, spitting out the cube type enemies that had fought Meia. "Shit, looks like I've got company."

"Scanners are picking up a nebula directly ahead of the ship." reported Belvedere.

"We're unable to regain control of the ship." added Amarone.

"I can't stop this thing!" screamed Bart.

"It's just one thing after another around here." muttered Magno putting a new ice bag on her head.

"Meia here," came her voice as another vid screen came up in front of Magno, "The platform is offline we're unable to retrieve Dita and Miss Gasco."

Another vid screen came up showing Barnette and Jura looking cramped together and very uncomfortable. "Jura and I have been trapped in this elevator for hours!" yelled Barnette. "Someone come get us out!" added Jura.

"Good grief! What next?" sighed Magno.

Duelo was finally getting something on the sonogram when suddenly the power just went out. Quickly grabbing the radio off of the guard standing next to him he radioed engineering. "Engineering, I'm working on a patient. I need you to make power to the sickbay a priority."

"We've got our own problems down here." came the voice of the chief engineer, "I'd love to help but I can't read men's language."

"I could read it for you if I were there." he replied.

"Go right ahead." said BC.

Several moments later, Duelo stepped off the power lift into main engineering, to the alarm of several of the females working there. One of them openly screamed, "It's a _man_!"

"Oh, hey. Over here please." said Parfait noticing the man standing there. As he came up next to her she continued, "I've been trying to check the status of the Paksis, but the data does me no good if I can't read it."

"It's just a hi-type #6," he responded, recognizing the robot. "What are you doing?" he asked turning to the girl.

"I have no idea why, but the Paksis and this thing are sharing the same wavelengths. I thought it would make a good sensor but I can't read the language."

"I see," Duelo said accessing the data on the little bot. "Impurities are spreading within the main engine room," he said after a bit, "It's likely due to all of the changes to the ship."

"The way I understand it," said Parfait, "This system was designed to harvest the energy from the crystal's growth. But I've never seen a reaction like this before."

"Perhaps it's a result of the two ships fusing." offered Duelo.

"You're probably right. Can you do anything about it?"

"Sorry," Duelo said straightening up, "I'm a doctor not an engineer."

"That's a pitiful excuse!" said Parfait placing her hands on her hips, "I believe that everything that moves is alive. And a doctor's job is to heal all living things, right?"

"You have a very interesting perspective." Duelo remarked. As he removed his long coat to get to work the ship shook yet again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Captain," said Belvedere, "The ship's engines seem to have shut down."

"Great," moaned the Captain, "Just when we get the good news that we've stopped its in the middle of a nebula." As though to add insult to injury the small fan that was Magno's only relief from the heat died with the engines.

"Captain," called Amarone as her station started beeping, "Readings show a section of the ship is starting to transform again."

"It never ends."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The numbers at Duelo's station started going haywire. "The ships parameters are changing." he said to Parfait who was still working on Pyoro.

"Here too. It's strange, why the sudden shift? What is with this thing?"

Coming over to where she was, Duelo leaned over to look at Pyoro's screen, "It might have something to do with the composition of the nebula."

"That's it!" cried Parfait as an epiphany struck, "It must be getting rid of the impurities and neutralizing them."

"fascinating," mused Duelo, "It's behaving exactly like a living being."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'Damn it.' thought Jon as he and Meia were furiously trying to get the dead platform to release the dreads so they could deploy. 'Brand new equipment never works when you need it.' "I'm getting nothing. You having any better luck Meia?"

"No. God-damned, jury-rigged, piece of shit!" she screamed kicking her terminal.

Before Jon could comment on her very unladylike vocabulary, not that he really cared if she had a sailor mouth, the ship shook violently and shuddered to a halt. Since Jon and Meia were side by side, this resulted in Jon falling on top of the dread pilot. Not wanting to crush the girl he stopped himself by placing his hands outside her shoulders, a position any anime fan would be familiar with. As the two gained their bearings, they noticed the rather compromising position they were in. Jon swallowed hard and was grateful for the armor covering his reaction, Meia on the other hand felt a heat rising in her face, 'Why the hell is this happening?' she wondered, 'Am I getting sick?'

Fate, being a cruel bitch, decided that this would be a good time for the vice captain to walk into the hangar. Eyes wide at the scene before her she smirked as she realized that the two on the ground were staring at each other so hard that they hadn't noticed her presence yet. Clearing her throat to get their attention she said, "Maybe I should come back later." Meia jumped as though she'd been electrocuted, Jon rose to his feet slowly, determined not to let the vice captain walking in on him and Meia cause him to lose his cool. As Jon helped Meia to her feet, Buzam continued, "Have you managed to get the platform working yet?"

"Not yet." said Jon, "but if Bart doesn't learn to fly straight, he's going to find himself swimming home."

"Okay so the dreads are out of the game," said BC smirking at the Marine's ire, "What about the vanguard?"

Jon palmed himself on the forehead as he exclaimed, "I can't believe I forgot about the kid's mech!"

Meia was already at her terminal again checking the status of the launch catapult. "The capacitors are fully charged, it is possible to deploy the vanguard to retrieve Dita and Miss Gasco. The question is, how to convince him to save Dita."

"Oh I'm sure he'd miss her if she wasn't around, even though he'd never admit it." said Jon grinning.

"Before we call the mission a success there's a problem we have to fix." said BC.

"What problem?" asked Jon.

"That one." BC said pointing at the catapult seat which was at the other end of the hangar, right by the door. "Can we get it reset to launch again?"

"Yes," responded Meia, "But it would drain the capacitors, and with the power out we can't charge them again for the launch."

"There is another way to retrieve the launch seat." the Marine said making his way to the far side of the hangar.

"Oh really?" said Meia, full of skepticism, "And just how do you plan on doing that? Pull it back here by hand?"

"Nope." said Jon as he reached the launch seat. Placing his hands open palmed on the front of the seat he said, "I'm gonna push." Before either of the women could say anything, Jon called on every ounce of strength he could muster and leaned into the seat. Slowly, inch by agonizingly slow inch, the seat began to move. It felt like pushing a parked tank uphill, but Jon kept at it.

As the Marine was setting the new bar in strength and determination, BC called the bridge, "Captain I have a suggestion."

"Yes, what is it?" asked Magno as she set a new bag of ice on her head.

"We should be able to launch the vanguard with no problems.

"I'm listening."

"It's potentially risky but we could have the boy use it to search for Dita and Goscogne."

"That's not a bad idea."said Magno sitting up a little straighter in her seat.

"Acknowledged." said BC as Jon grunted with the effort of his labor.

"Who was that BC?" asked Magno hearing the noise.

"Just the Marine Lieutenant pushing the catapult back into launch position."

"By hand!" cried Magno leaning forward in her seat. Even the bridge bunnies stopped what they were doing as they looked at the screen in front of the bridge."

"Yes Captain, see for yourself." said BC as the camera swiveled to reveal the man, arms bulging where they were exposed, pushing the massive launch seat back into place. Even with the poor quality of video everyone on the bridge could see the sweat running off of his face. It was then that Magno realized that he wasn't wearing his helmet.

"Wait, thats a man!" cried Amarone.

Too late.

"Yes," began Magno, "The leader of the Marines is, in fact, a man. Furthermore a good many of the Marines are male. But, as you'll notice, he's going above and beyond to help save two of our own. So I won't hear a foul word against them. They've proven to be valuable allies, and they don't have the Tarakkan mistrust of women, so I ask you to treat them with respect."

"Aye aye Captain." replied the two girls turning their attention back to the screen where the man was holding the launch seat in position while Meia got the clamps in place.

"BC I leave this to you." Magno said cutting the link. Turning to the two girls she said, "When this is over, the whole crew is going to have to be told about the Marines, until then I ask you not to speak a word of this to anyone."

"Yes ma'am." the two said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the clamps secured themselves into place, Jon let the seat go slowly as it settled against its guide. He staggered slightly to the side, exhausted by the effort of moving two tons of steel fifty yards. Coming to rest against the dread platform, he rested his hands on his thighs and brought his breathing back to normal. When meia finished prepping the catapult for launch she came to the side of the Marine "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine, but that was one hell of a workout." Jon said dismissively to mask how shocked he was that Meia was showing concern again.

BC had been watching everything transpire, and decided to leave the two alone as she left to collect the vanguard pilot.

Meia had seen BC leave and decided to use this time alone to clarify a few things. "Why?" she asked turning to put her back against the wall.

"Why what?" said the Marine standing up straight and turning to look at the girl.

"Why are you trying so hard for people you don't know. Why would you care for women at all."

"Because it's the right thing to do. And so what if they're women, what the hell difference does it make who's in trouble?"

"The men of Tarak believe women are monsters who eat men's innards."

"I am not from Tarak." Jon said pointedly.

"But still..." Meia began.

"Look Meia, propaganda is nothing more than pointless lies designed to shepherd unthinking masses into following the beliefs of a few individuals. There's no reason that men and women can't be friends and more."

"More?"

"Where I come from it's commonplace for men and women to not only be friends with each other but to fall in love with each other."

Before he could say another word Meia took two steps forward and delivered a beautiful right hook to the Marine's jaw. "Blasphemy!" she spat venomously, "Stop lying."

The blow, while not actually causing pain did succeed in turning Jon's face slightly to the side. Turning back to face her, his eyes seemed to pierce her soul as he responded, "And what exactly do I have to gain by lying to you? Hmm? You've only ever seen life from one perspective. It's time to open your eyes and see past the lies of your government. Open your mind and you'll be amazed at the things you'll learn."

Meia matched his gaze with a threatening one of her own, searching his eyes for the lie she wanted to see there. She saw only truth. "Fine." she said, "You obviously don't believe as the men of Tarak do, but that doesn't mean that I have to believe what you do."

"I can accept that." Jon replied silently reveling in this small victory. Noticing Meia massaging her hand he asked, "Are you alright?"

"Are all Marines as thick headed as you?" she said with a small amount of humor, "It felt like I punched a brick wall."

"Pretty much." he answered with a grin, "Ask any drill instructor. Driving a point through our thicks skulls comes just shy of needing a sledgehammer."

"So..." Meia said, "You say your not our enemy, and you've given me no reason to doubt your word. But the question that now stands is, what are you now?"

"Well, we've both stood our ground and faced the same enemy, though not side by side, I guess that makes us comrades-in-arms."

This answer obviously didn't go over too well. The slight grin was wiped off of Meia's face as it resumed its slightly angry look. "We can take care of our selves. We don't need help." Having nothing more to say, she returned to her console and got back to trying to make some headway with the hell-spawned system.

With a sigh Jon returned to his own console. 'It's too bad she's so bull headed.' he thought, 'She is pretty hot.'

Pausing in her work, Meia placed a hand over her heart. 'Just what is this feeling?'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hot." moaned Hibiki. He was sure that he was going to cook to death, the rising temperature had forced him to remove all but his underclothes. As he wondered how long it would be until he was done enough for the women to eat, the vice commander came to the cell again.

"My, what an interesting outfit."

"So, its my turn to go with you now huh?" he growled.

"Not exactly, I came here to ask you for a favor."

"What favor?" the boy asked, the edge in his voice softening.

"I'll level with you. We left two crew mates behind. I'd like you to help us retrieve them."

"Ha!" the boy spat, "And why should I help you?"

"This isn't the time for the men and women on this ship to be fighting with each other." BC growled, her patience with the impertinent boy wearing thin. "You saw it, right? That unidentified enemy? I figured since you were able to handle them so easily before, you'd be willing to lend us your strength once again. I had heard that in a mans world, the strong helping the weak was a common ideal. But I guess I was wrong." she said as she started to walk away.

"All right!" Hibiki called, sitting up. "I've already shown you a side of myself that I probably shouldn't have. But this is the last time I give in to your threats."

"Threats?" asked BC, "I certainly didn't intend for that to come across as a threat."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Damn." said Duelo.

"What's the matter?" asked Parfait not looking away from her own console.

"The intake/outtake ratio is off. There aren't enough link routes for the excess power, and the existing ones can't handle the stress."

"Don't give up so quickly," Parfait said turning to the man, "There's got to be a way around the problem."

"That's it." cried Duelo. "A bypass. When an artery is blocked you just create another route for it."

"A detour huh? Great idea. Ya know," Parfait said patting the man on the shoulder, "You wouldn't make a half bad engineer. All right everyone, it's time to get busy." As the girl headed off to tell the rest of the engineers the plan, Duelo slowly reached up to touch the spot where the female made contact with him.

'Curious.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Captain." reported Belvedere, "We have a proximity alert!"

"What is it?"

"An asteroid sized ice mass is on a collision course with the ship."

"You hear that Bart?" yelled the Captain at the helmsman. "Do something!"

"Some one get me out of here!" screamed the man.

"He's useless." sighed Amarone.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What the hell are these things?" wondered Gascogne aloud. The machines that had come to life, assembled themselves at the ragged edge of a section of hull and fused themselves together to make new hull. "They can make repairs even under these conditions?" Noticing movement in her peripherals she turned to see one of the machines coming right for her. Eyes widening she muttered, "Great they're going to use me for parts."

"No!" Dita cried as another blast glanced off her shields. "I really hate bad aliens who don't know when to give up." These three cube types had been chasing her since she left the wreck. "Huh?" she gasped as another signal appeared on her tac map, "From the front too?" Just then another blast on the shields just above her canopy caused her to flinch, resulting in her squeezing the weapons controls on her control sphere and letting loose two beams of energy to shrink away and disappear into the distance. A few moments later, a small explosion could be seen as the beams contacted the craft that the radar had shown to be ahead of Dita. As the fireball receded an angry voice came over the comm channel.

"HEY! Is that any way to treat the guy who came all this way to get you!"

"Mr. Alien!" cried Dita joyfully.

'Ah shit' thought Hibiki as he desperately tried to stop his mech and get away from what he knew was coming. "S-stop. Get away."

"You came all the way out here just to save me didn't you? You really are a good alien."

"No I'm not. Would you knock that off!" he cried as Ditas dread came into contact with his vanguard and a bright light enveloped them as they tranformed once again into the blue vandread.

"Oh wow. Neat." said Dita as she took in everything about the new cockpit.

"Hey! Quit moving around would ya!" yelled Hibiki. The design of the cockpit left a lot to be desired in his opinion. The seat they were in had solid restraints over his shoulders that kept him from moving around too much. There was a belt that went all the way around the girls waist which, in Hibiki's mind, only served to keep her close to him. On top of all that the way the seat was set up had her literally sitting on his lap, and all that moving around that the girl was doing only served to send strange and slightly uncomfortable sensations through his body.

Turning to look at the boy, Dita couldn't help but notice how cute he looked when he was uncomfortable. 'But then, he always looks cute' she thought to herself. "I want you to know, I believed in you. I knew that no matter what happened you'd come and rescue me." she said to the man whose lap she was sitting on.

"I didn't come here to rescue you." he said becoming more uneasy after seeing how the girl was looking at him, "I was just looking for you."

"Well, thank you." she said softly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gascogne was impressed, in less than a minute the cube type in front of her had precisely cut away most of the energy ribbons that had held her. "You guys work fast, we could use good workers like you."

Finally it seemed that enough ribbons were out of the way because the cube type's claw arm was headed directly for Gascogne's head. "Heh. Looks like its finally my turn."

The claw never reached her. Mere inches from her face the arm stopped moving forward as most of the arm and all of the cube type were crushed in the hand of the giant blue mech. Turning to face the mech she said, "You guys put off saving me to the last possible second, but I'm still here so I guess I can't complain."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Typing away furiously at her terminal, Parfait spared a moment to talk to Duelo. "We've managed to secure up to 36 bypasses. How are things on your end?"

"I can't do anything more over here." said the doctor as he closed the panel on the small navi-bot he'd been working on. "We'll have to make due with what we've already got."

"No way!" said the head engineer turning to face the man, "We'll throw the Paksis completely off-balance if there aren't enough routes for the power."

"Do you know what doctors do at times like this?" he asked turning to the girl. He gave a small smile as he continued, "We believe in the patients will to live."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"The ice mass is getting closer!" cried Belvedere, starting to panic with all the heat and constant stress, "Distance 12000!"

"There's no response from the Paksis," said Amarone, close behind her friend in terms of panic, "We have no control!"

Magno growled, frustrated at the situation. It looked as though their fates had caught up with them and Magno was once again preparing herself for the end when she noticed the fan beside her had turned back on. At that moment power and systems started coming back online all over the ship.

Gasping in delight Amarone reported, "The systems just booted back up!"

Not wasting any time Magno barked at the helmsman, "Hard to starboard! 30 degrees!"

"Oh Grand Pa, no!" the blonde man cried as he threw his arms up to shield himself.

As the ice leviathan hurtled towards the ship that was easily 1/100th it's size, a beam of light suddenly clove the mass in two as a katana would an orange, sending the two halves of ice hurtling in separate directions as explosions ripped through it. As the titanic iceberg split, the ship managed to slip through the resulting void, clearing the ice by mere feet on either side.

"It looks like this is the end for me." Bart moaned as he risked a peek under his arms. "Huh?" he muttered stupidly as he saw that the ice mass was no longer there, "What's that?" It was then that he noticed the blue mech from before, situated in front of the ship. "Hmph!" he muttered, "So he saves the day again."

Leaning back in his seat Hibiki moaned, "For some reason I feel really tired right now." It was certainly true enough, all his energy seemed to be sucked away from him. He had a feeling it was caused in part by the girl who was now bouncing excitedly on his lap. The other part could be the action of a certain part of his anatomy that had never happened to him before.

Not noticing the discomfort of the male, Dita continued to bounce with glee as she said, "See Miss Gasco. I told you it was amazing!"

"Yeah thats great." muttered Gascogne from where she was stuck upside down in the tiny cockpit, "Now would you hurry up so that I can get out of here? Sheesh!"

All of the various red lights turned green and then disappeared as the 'eyes' sprung back into existence on the face/screen of Pyoro. Standing up and popping all of the cables and wires out of his body he rendered a comical salute and said, "I'm back in service."

"All right!" cried Parfait grabbing the doctors hand in celebration, "We did it! Are we good or what?"

Duelo didn't answer, his attention on the physical contact he had with the female. Slowly Parfait noticed this too and a slight blush tinted her cheeks. Pyoro just sat there and watched the two with interest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jon sighed as he sat down in front of his uniform locker. The events of the last 24 hours had been interesting to say the least. Several things that he thought would be constant were either gone, or had changed so much that they were almost completely new. His newest problem, namely the berthing of his troops, was just another of the things that would veer off of the usual path. He had only been alloted eight rooms for his troops located just off of the vanguard hangar. The Captain had also informed him that a roommate of similar rank would be selected from the female crew by her to room with him in the interest of energy conservation, leaving Jon with seven rooms for his fourteen troops. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, however there were an odd number of females meaning at least one of the rooms would have to be co-ed.

As he looked at his troops chatting about the various things they had done, an idea struck him. Rising to his feet he put his camouflaged over shirt on, rolled the sleeves, and set his eight point cover on his head. "Marines." he barked stopping the chatter as his Marines gave him their attention, "I've got some word to pass. The Captain has given us eight rooms to live in, just off of the main hangar. I have been informed that someone from her crew will be selected to room with me, but I have been given free reign to assign the rest as I see fit. For those of you who didn't fail math, you'll realize that this means at least one of the rooms will have to be multi-gender." There were several snickers at this as several eyes looked at Knight and Ghost. "However I won't put just one female out there like that so I've decided that all females will share a room with a male." Smirks were replaced with opened mouthed gaping as he continued. "In keeping with the Captains suggestion we'll do this by rank, so the room assignments will be as follows. Doc you and Meathead will take room across the hall from myself and my as yet unknown roommate. Next to my room will be my fire team leaders D-day and Tigress. Across from them Clip and Sparky will finish out the support staff. Tank and Titan, you will room across the hall from Dozer and Lovely. Runner you and Dragon will be next to the twins, leaving Knight and Ghost with the last room."

The room was silent, a mix of confusion, excitement and nervousness on various faces. That silence was broken by Runner as he slapped Knight on the back and said, "Way to go kid. Lucky you rooming with your girlfriend. Do me a favor and keep it down tough, I'd like to be able to get some sleep at..." BAM! His words were cut off by a fist planting itself right in his mouth. Looking up from the floor, Runner was surprised to see the twins standing over him with dangerous glares on their faces. "Why the hell did you hit me?" he yelled as he got to his feet.

"Because our momma raised us to have more respect for women than that." said Tank massaging his fist.

"But if you insist on talking that way, then I'll have to pick up where my brother left off." said Titan.

Runner looked around at the rest of the Marines, flinching when he saw the murderous look on Ghost's face. As his gaze fell on the Lieutenant, D-day said, "Don't go looking for support Runner. That was way out of line."

"It also brings me to my next point." he said as the Marines brought their attention back to him. "This is geared mostly towards the men here but everyone should take this to heart. The men and women on this ship have been separated from each other for almost a hundred years. If you don't want to float home, I suggest you steer away from any remarks that will upset them." He threw a withering glare at Runner. "For the next three quarters of a year or so we are, for better or worse, stuck together. This is not an order to completely avoid them however. We need them to like us so if you can become friends with them, by all means, it can only help our situation. I advise you to tread cautiously if you want to take it farther than just friends though. Common sense should tell you that every female on this ship is, to a one, a virgin. And being separate from the opposite gender means that contraceptives are not an option. So if you get a little too friendly with them you will be responsible for any outcome. Having said that I understand that you are all healthy adults and I would be stupid to try and stop you, especially with a male to female ratio like this. I ask however that try to use your heads as something more than just a place to rest your cover. And if you notice something going on between the Tarakkans and the Mejarians you steer clear and leave them to each other."

"Like the doctor and the engineering head." added Meathead. "I noticed the sparks flying off of those two a mile away."

"I'd like to add the redheaded dread pilot Dita and the vanguard pilot Hibiki to that." said Jon. "While the boy doesn't seem too enthusiastic about her, she seems completely obsessed with him."

"And of course the rest of us will steer clear of the blue haired dread pilot sir." said Doc.

"Why's that Mike?" Jon said, feigning ignorance.

"Come on sir we all saw the way you two were looking at each other." said the medic with a smile. All the rest of the Marines, Jon noticed, were smiling or nodding in agreement.

"Guess I should have expected as much from my Marines." the lieutenant said. "Okay I admit it. I've got a thing for the girl, but you would not believe the amount of brainwashing the Mejarian government does to keep the genders separate. She straight up clocked me when I put men, women, and love, in the same sentence."

"No shit sir?" asked Dozer.

"I warn you all now, if you want to get anywhere with these girls you're going to have to break through a hundred years of lies and half truths dug in like it was religious dogma."

"At least you have the guts to tell the girl the truth, despite the consequences." said Dozer looking at Knight.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. I have the guts too." Knight said.

"Then why haven't you?" asked Dragon.

"He did." said Ghost smiling.

"No way. He did? When?" asked Titan.

'Good grief. They're like a bunch of old women in a sewing circle.' thought Jon.

"Didn't you guys notice we were the last two to show up here?" she asked.

"So what did you say?" asked Lovely, positively giddy.

"I didn't say anything." the pink haired girl said.

"Nothing?" asked Tank.

"She couldn't." said Knight turning red. "She was too busy kissing me."

"No shit? Well it's about time chico." said Runner.

"This isn't a problem, is it sir?" the boy asked.

"Are you kidding?" said the Lieutenant. "I knew it wasn't a matter of if, but when. But no I don't have a problem with it. Just remember the points I brought up before. That's all I ask. So long as you are able to follow orders and fight, your personal life is your own."

"Am I interrupting?" came a voice from the other side of the room. Everyone turned to look and saw Meia standing at the door.

"Not at all, I just finished." said Jon. "Did you need something."

"Besides a clue?" murmured Tank earning him an elbow in the ribs from his brother.

"The Captain wants you on the bridge." Meia said turning around and walking out the door.

"Alright Marines, I'll go see what the Captain wants." Jon said walking towards the door. Stopping as he reached the portal, he turned around and said, "Oh and before I forget. There are some people stuck in an elevator between level 7 and level 8. D-day, Tigress, get a team together to get them out."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

All over the ship screens popped into existence as the all hands broadcast went out from the bridge. The screen displayed the Captain with the vice commander by her side as always. The vice commander stepped forward and began to speak.

"The Captain and I have concluded our meeting. We've decided to inform the entire crew of our current situation. After analyzing the debris, we have gained some intelligence on our enemy. I'd like you all to take a look at this image." The screen cut to a very grainy image of a multi colored orb with what looked like clockwork gears encasing it. "This is the enemy's home planet. We do not know it's exact location but it is apparent they have a considerable amount of military power. We are currently in the territory of this enemy force and we are being attacked because we are being perceived as a threat. Because of this we anticipate more battles with this enemy as we make our way to Mejarian space."

"Theres more," she said as the video cut back to the bridge. "Our enemy is about to launch a full scale operation which calls for the destruction of several planets, to include our home world of Mejare as well as the male planet Tarak. We have no information as to why our faceless enemy is calling for the complete obliteration of our home worlds."

"We are pirates and as such our loyalties are not bound to either Mejare or Tarak." said Magno. "However it would be bad business sense to allow an unknown enemy to destroy our potential customers. Therefore I plan to arrive at our home planet before our enemy to inform both worlds of this crisis. In order to be successful we must incorporate the men we have taken captive as well as the Marines, many of whom are male, into our crew."

"huh?" gasped the bridge bunnies.

Bart chuckled from where he sat on the helms plank as he muttered "So, you finally see it my way."

The camera angle widened to show the Marine Lieutenant and the dread team leader standing by the Captain opposite of the vice commander as Magno continued, "There are many things we don't understand such as this ship and that large mech. However I am sure that we'll learn about these things a piece at a time as we continue our journey. I expect the cooperation of the entire crew in this. That is all." Magno pressed a button on her console and cut the transmission.

"Nice speech." said Jon as the Captain sighed and relaxed back into her chair. "But I'm sure you didn't bring me here to use me as the poster child for my Marines. Was there something you wanted?"

"You're very clever Lieutenant, yes I did have something to tell you." Gesturing to Meia, the captain said, "I have decided your room mate will be Meia."

"But Captain." began Meia before she was cut off by Magno.

"You two are the leaders of my fighting forces. It's in my best interests to keep you two close."

"Makes sense." said Jon. "I just got done assigning rooms to my troops and I did the same thing."

"Exactly." said BC, "The best way to ensure communication between the two groups is to keep their leaders close. Besides you can use this opportunity to bounce battle strategies off of each other. And if I'm not mistaken, Lieutenant, you've expressed an interest in our dreads, correct?"

"Actually, I had some ideas about those unused vanguards in the hangar. One of my men managed to get one working and destroyed a cube type in the hangar with it. I figure with some training I can give you a squad of van-types to supplement your dread teams, after I let my mechanic and armorer have a look at them first. Captain I have no arguments about the berthing arrangement but mine isn't the only opinion here." he said, looking to Meia for her input.

"If its the Captain's decision then I will of course go along with it." she said, making her way to the door. "As for your plan to use the van types, don't bother. We don't need your help." the door shut behind her with a loud click.

"Stubborn girl." said Magno as she shook her head. "I'm sorry to do this to you Lieutenant but maybe you can help break her of this obsession she has with doing everything by herself."

"Honestly captain, I'm still trying to break her of all the anti-male propaganda that Mejare has been feeding you women." said the Marine. "And with her not letting anyone get close to her, that's proving to be one tough nut to crack."

"I hope you succeed Lieutenant." said the Captain. "You two would make for a very cute couple."

Stunned, Jon had to struggle to find his voice again. "I'm not sure I understand you Captain." he bluffed.

"I've been around for a very long time young man, she may hate all men but she respects your knowledge of combat. I'm sure there are many things she can learn from you. Honestly Lieutenant, I'd say you've got the best chance of anyone on this ship of getting into that girls heart. And I've seen the way you look at her."

At that moment the door to the bridge slid open again as the Tarak doctor and Ezra walked in.

"I'm sorry for worrying everyone before, I'll be returning to my station." Ezra said.

The vice commander stepped forward. "Have you determined the cause of the fever yet?"

Ezra stuttered a bit as she began, "Uh, well, the reason is..."

"There appears to be a parasitic organism feeding on my patients body." Duelo finished bluntly.

Disgusted faces were shared around the bridge. Before ezra could correct the doctor.

"No. You're wrong." she told the doctor.

"Hmm?"

"Well, you see. It looks like I'll be having a baby!" Ezra blurted out with a bright blush covering her face.

The Marine was the first to recover. "Congratulations."

Having returned to the bridge when she heard about Ezra's release from the infirmary, Meia gave him a strange look as the bridge bunnies crowded around the expectant mother.

"Ezra when in the world did you become a fahma?" asked Belvedere.

"So who's the ohma?" asked Amarone.

"But I thought babies were made in a factory?" said Bart, joining the conversation.

"A factory?" asked Jon, thoroughly confused. "Alright, someone's going to have to explain to me how men and women have been procreating for the last hundred years."

"You mean you weren't born in a factory?" asked Meia, nothing this man said matched up to what she had been taught.

"_Hell_ to the no. My mother, a _woman_, gave birth to me."

Meia was shocked, Bart looked flabbergasted, but Duelo seemed curious.

"Now that you mention it I have heard the rumor that women reproduce internally."

Ezra nodded at the doctor confirming what he said and turned back to the Captain. "Captain, please forgive me. I'm sorry, I was going to tell you once we finished the raid on the men before."

Magno just smiled, "There's nothing to apologize for Ezra, I hope you have a healthy baby."

"Jeeze Ezra, why didn't you tell us anything?" asked Belvedere.

"C'mon." said Amarone, bouncing with excitement. "Tell us, who's the ohma?"

"What is that exactly." asked Duelo.

"The ohma donates the egg and the fahma nurtures it in her womb." the girls explained. "Don't you know anything?"

"This is the first I've heard of it." admitted the doctor.

"Doc if you think that's strange you'll flip when you hear how I was created." added the Marine.

"We certainly have our share of things to be surprised about around here don't we BC?" said the Captain.

"Uhh, yes. Certainly Captain." she answered.

"The whole crew had better work as hard as it can to care and set an example for the new life that will be joining us."

"Right, it appears this is going to be a long trip." said BC turning to look out of the giant window into the ether.

'You said a mouthful.' thought Jon as he left the bridge to settle his gear into his room. As he walked he wondered wether or not he should sleep with a gun under his pillow. He though of his assigned roommate and he wondered if the gun would be enough.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey jura?" said Barnette.

"Yeah?"

"When do you think someone's going to let us out of here?"

"Someone help us." Jura whined pathetically.

Suddenly there was a sound of tearing metal as a hole opened up in the wall. Dozer stuck his head in the whole and asked, "Did some beautiful ladies ask for a rescue?"

His answer was the click of a glock's hammer being pulled back.

Pulling his head back from the gap he said to his companion, "Clip, I think someone in there wants to talk to you."


End file.
